Just as intriguing as piecing together a shattered vessel from an ancient civilisation is the musical archaeology practiced by Rusell Blacker. Having reconstructed works by Monteverdi and others, Blacker has, since the solitary days of COVID, laboured on bringing back to life the fragmentary works contained in the Eton Choirbook, the “Rosetta Stone” of English polyphony at the turn of the 16th century, a remarkable survivor of the ravages of the Reformation.

Blacker has entrusted the first modern performances of these pieces to Selene, a consort of young English singers under the direction of Daniel Gilchrist, himself a tenor.

Heavenly Light, the first volume of these resurrected works, containing compositions by Robert Fayrfax, Robert Wylkynson, Nicholas Huchyn, Richard Davy, William Horwood and Robert Holyngborne, is full of ecstatic singing, reflecting the joy of rediscovery.

This completion of Blacker’s project, Earthly Solace, devotes much of its program to music celebrating the life of Arthur, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of Henry VII who died tragically in 1502, aged 15. Ironically, Arthur’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon laid the seeds...