US TARIFFS UPDATE | August 2025 | No impact expected on your Presto orders | Read full details
John Sheppard: Media vita
& other sacred music
Westminster Cathedral Choir, Martin Baker
Sublime music of relinquishment and rejoicing prefaces the six-part Missa Cantate, directed with magisterial spaciousness by Martin Baker. The recording offers a nave’s-ear perspective.
John Sheppard: Media vita
& other sacred music
Westminster Cathedral Choir, Martin Baker
Purchase product
Sublime music of relinquishment and rejoicing prefaces the six-part Missa Cantate, directed with magisterial spaciousness by Martin Baker. The recording offers a nave’s-ear perspective.
About
Even by the standards of a time and place—Tudor England—in which masterpieces of choral polyphony appear to have been virtually an everyday occurrence, there is something uniquely and intensely compelling about the surviving works of John Sheppard. This is music designed to be sung by liturgical professionals, and none rise to its demands quite like Westminster Cathedral Choir.
Contents and tracklist
Spotlight on this release
-
An error occurred.
Try watching this video on www.youtube.com, or enable JavaScript if it is disabled in your browser.
Awards and reviews
Christmas 2017
Sublime music of relinquishment and rejoicing prefaces the six-part Missa Cantate, directed with magisterial spaciousness by Martin Baker. The recording offers a nave’s-ear perspective.
August 2017
Westminster match the monumentality of [Media vita’s] own structure in a spacious, architectural performance whose physical heft is balanced by a blend so smudgy-soft that the impression is of hundreds of voices all sharing in this musical prayer….It’s quite possible that 2017 marks Sheppard’s 500th anniversary year. It’s hard to think of a better birthday-present than this outstanding recording of three of his finest works.
August 2017
Whichever option you choose, if you like Tudor music but have not yet become properly acquainted with that of John Sheppard, you really should do so. The new Hyperion is one of the best ways to begin that acquaintance – or to renew it.
3rd September 2017
The Westminster Choir under Martin Baker give their all in gracefully phrased, controlled performances.
16th July 2017
Westminster Cathedral Choir, under Martin Baker, invest this music, magnificently sung, with immense dignity as it slowly unfolds to reveal Sheppard’s unique sound world.
