QuintEssential Sackbut and Cornett Ensemble

The QuintEssential Sackbut and Cornett Ensemble is one of my favorite groups. They put out some really great classical music, and I am a total groupie. If they had T-shirts, I'd buy one. As it is, I have all their CDs - or at least the ones I'm aware of. 

The first one I purchased was Elisa is the Fayrest Quene, a recording of Elizabethan music written back in the day by various composers. This is a tremendous CD to have if you have any interest in Tudor England or Renaissance music. It is lovingly performed and recorded and, as close as these untrained ears can tell, sounds very authentic. The CD is also beautifully packaged.  I purchased this as a gift for a Tudorphile I know along with Alison Weir's biography on Elizabeth. It made a great one-two punch.

I find myself listening to this CD quite a bit, especially at work. It's wonderful to put on the headphones and shut out the world. Several of the tracks are in my Top 25 played list on my iPod.

Since discovering the QuintEssential Sackbut and Cornett Ensemble, I've picked up their other two CDs: In Venetia and Moon, Sun, & All Things. These are just as interesting as Elisa is the Fayrest Quene. In Venetia, and the name suggests, is a collection of old Venetian music. Moon, Sun, & All Things is even more non-standard, being Baroque music from Latin America written as long ago as the 1500s but not more recent than the 1700s. Very different than anything else in my collection (although it's questionable if this is truly a CD by the Ensemble since they do not appear on every track).

All of the music by the Ensemble truly evokes the world in comes from, and it's all beautiful recorded. The other thing I like is that each CD is a very different kind of music; it makes each CD of their a whole new sonic adventure. Great stuff!