Employing British Rock and Art Song to illuminate the music of the Renaissance

The programme Amores pasados takes its name from the title piece by John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) on the ensemble's eponymous second album - a work setting poetry from the three great ages of Spanish literature. The work is complemented by pieces dedicated specially to the ensemble by two other grandees of British Rock: Sting and Tony Banks (Genesis) - songwriters who more than hold their own with their British Renaissance predecessor also featured here, Thomas Campion. Known also for their celebrated recordings of Spanish Renaissance music, the quartet complete this musical gesture of British-Spanish cultural exchange with intabulations of works by Victoria and Morales, visualising them as they might have been performed in 17th-century England.