Ravish'd with Sacred Extasies

"If you think of lute songs as secular repertory, think again...Elin Manahan Thomas and lutenist David Miller illuminate this music's subtleties, infusing their reading with warmth and intimacy...this is a lovely contribution to recorded lute song." BBC Music

Continuing its work with the rising stars of the early music world, CORO is delighted to be releasing a brand new recording by two of The Sixteen's principal members - soprano, Elin Manahan Thomas and theorbo and lute player, David Miller.

The seventeenth century devotional songs on this disc were written against a backdrop of furious historical dramas and lurching tides of fortune. The songs chosen reflect these assorted times and contexts, and are accordingly diverse.

Ravish'd with Sacred Extasies (a quote taken directly from Playford's 'Harmonia Sacrae') explores some of the most beautiful Elizabethan lute songs ranging from the doctrinally eloquent to the theologically unsteady, from the spare and the restrained to the opulent and the overblown, from Dowland's small cluster of late devotional songs to Purcell's flowery and luscious settings.