Written in the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1 of England.. Here we are loving it over five hundred years later

J'ai découvert l' "Ave Verum Corpus " de Byrd par un beau soir de décembre 2004, dans la sublime interprétation des King's Singers. Je m'en souviens encore car je ne m'en suis jamais remis : Je considère cette partition comme rien de moins que le Mont Everest de la musique, tant l'harmonie en est parfaite et concorde de façon éblouissante avec le texte, laissant transparaitre la profondeur intense de la foi catholique de William Byrd. J'en ai entendu des dizaines d'"interprétations différentes, que j'ai toutes trouvées inférieures à celle des King's Singers. J'ai transmis l'amour de ce morceau à mon fils, qui l'a ainsi fait chanter lors de sa messe de mariage en août 2021, par un choeur constitué pour l'occasion, et cependant fait de chanteurs tous remarquables. Aujourd'hui, je découvre cette interprétation de l'ensemble ZENE et, pour la première fois, j'ai le sentiment qu'elle vaut celle des King's Singers, c'est pourquoi je me sens obligé de vous adresser mes plus vives félicitations. Quand nous ferez-vous le plaisir d'un "Sicut Cervus" de Palestrina ? Merci en tout cas pour votre sublime "Ave Verum"...

あまりの美しさに、息が止まる！　言葉では言い表せない♩ 真の神の存在を感じる。　完璧だ。神わざ!

I greatly appreciate the basses' and tenors' contagious looks of intensity and profound joy the whole time they sing this piece! The power of those altos and the sweetness of the sopranos, as well! Props to all 9 of you, this is a truly heavenly and prayerful rendition of such a precious piece of sacred polyphony.

I cry EVERY time I hear this piece, but I especially am pierced at 4:18 when the sopranos keep that note going before the "amen." It kills me every. single. time.

the diction, voice production, blending, and pronunciation in this recording is EVERYTHING.

Wundervoll. Die heilige Stimme des Abendlandes.

And not a skerrick of the dreaded vibrato ❤️❤️❤️

La meilleure interprétation que j'aie entendue de cette œuvre éternelle. Merci !

The absolute best rendition out there of this amazing piece. Perfect in every way, the tempo, blending of voices, acoustics, recording quality, timing, everything. Just stunning.

Quand la voix arrive à un tel niveau d'unité, de plasticité, d'harmonie par l'écoute mutuelle, j'oublie toute contingence terrestre. Peu d'oeuvre instrumentale me procure cette effet de transcendance du quotidien dans la perfection. Je ne connaissais pas cet ensemble, j'admire la fusion et la maitrise à laquelle ils sont parvenus...et le travail que cela doit représenter. Bravo et merci

Magnifique l'harmonie des vois est superbe quel bon ensemble my God

Man of various interests and tastes and this is one of my favorite things on all of YT.

Magnifique interprétation. Merci pour le partage de cette sublime pièce musicale.

Wonderful singing, thank you for sharing culture that should be protected. This is a true value for life.

I wish I had a well enough voice to be in groups like this one. I love singing so much

Perfect, Brilliant!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE! (Melissa)

un choeur d' une justesse, d'une modulation parfaites. Magnifiques compositions de william Byrd

Très belle interprétation, splendides voix et composition remarquable de William Byrd ! Bravo à l'Ensemble ZENE !!

My choir is going to sing this piece this year. I can only hope we can do it HALF as beautifully as this!

Yes, I'm getting the CD. This is an astonishingly good performance.

An exquisite rendition of this masterpiece. This performance by Zene, in my opinion, probably one of the best of the many I have heard.

Makes me wanna cry just about every time I hear it

I appreciate the singers movements while performing this piece. They give themselves to it, and don't get bogged down in the exquisite polyphony. Just the right forward motion. Perfect!

The next time someone asks what you mean by the sacred, show them this.

What a beautiful performance. This is what it feels like after we got some rain this week during the bushfire catastrophe here in Australia.Thank you.

Jaj, de gyönyörű! A Miserere szép tempójú terces imitációi, s a végén az Amen! Sok-sok videót tegyetek :)

I come back to this performance. It is to my mind the epitome of the sublime. 'Almost thou persuadest me'.

It made me literally cry. Extraordinary!

Remarquable interprétation qui nous permet de redécouvrir cette œuvre avec bonheur.

My teen grandkids sang this aong one Christmas and it was simply perfection. 👍

This is the most beautiful and best performances of this masterpiece I have ever heard. And I have sung it in an excellent church choir, but we were not quite THAT good. This choir;s tone quality is stunning and incredibly lovely -- so pure and beautiful. And the tempi were perfect for this size of group and the space they were performing in, and the conductor held tge ends of the major sections for just the right amount of time, and had the perfect length of breaks between section. I wojld never have even heard of this group if Yourtube had not put this video as one of the suggested videos after I watched the Gesualdo Six perform Byrd's "Miserere mei". Thank you, Byrd Ensemnble!

That smile at 3:38 - I reckon he's marvelling at the polphony, 'Ah Byrd...' Particularly that stunningly beautiful tenor line in the mix. It's so exquisite and effortless, there's not much else one can do.

es hat mich bis ins innere , meiner Seele berührt...

Beautifully balanced, sensitively performed, thoughtfully conducted, and majestically voiced. Every part of this performance cut right to the marrow, and we're all better for hearing it. Folks, if you're looking for a great Byrd's "Ave...": here. Here; you found it.

何度聴いたか分からない程、聴きに来ています。美しい声の響きに、ただただ感動しています。

Ave verum corpus, natum de Maria Virgine,[2] vere passum, immolatum in cruce pro homine cuius latus perforatum fluxit aqua et sanguine:[3] esto nobis praegustatum in mortis examine.[4] O Iesu dulcis, O Iesu pie, O Iesu, fili Mariae. Miserere mei. Amen.[5] Hail, true Body, born of the Virgin Mary, having truly suffered, sacrificed on the cross for mankind, from whose pierced side water and blood flowed: Be for us a foretaste [of the Heavenly banquet] in the trial of death! O sweet Jesus, O holy Jesus, O Jesus, son of Mary, have mercy on me. Amen.

Quelle qualité dans le découpage des voix. Une sonorité fondue et parfaite. Travail parfait

Beautiful! The best performance of Byrd's Ave Verum Corpus. This is what my choir aspires to when we sing it. We do well, but they are definitely the gold standard.

At 4:19 they knew what was about to happen was glorious. Amen in every way. Glory to God.

I heard this piece yesterday at the final conducting examination at Purdue university Ft. Wayne. Thank you for posting this so I can enjoy it again.

OMG ==0 Byrd full of modern expression yet faithful and conserving the tiding drive of his epoche. Loved it.

Heavenly. I had a tear in my eye towards the end.

This lifts you out of yourself onto a divine plain.....

Best version of this incredible beautiful choir work 🎼💜🎼🎶🎶🎶

Isso é que é entender do que está fazendo... Até quem está filmando é especial... Uau!!!

I've sung this piece since I was a boy treble and I've never heard such a clean and beautiful performance. I am in shock.

William byrd , avec Henry purcell , 2 compositeurs anglais de grand talent de l'époque pre_ baroque avec encore le style polyphonique renaissance pour le premier,se rapprochant d'un compositeur français de la même époque : guillaume bouzignac !

Lovely rendition. I had the privilage of performing this piece in choir, at that time, doing the tenor lines. Loved the production too. It cracked me up though, seeing the folks turn the music pages, as if they were "reading" them. That whole choir knows this beautiful song & their part deep into their cells. That was fine showmanship. What is real was their tuning into the nuances of the choir director (who is brilliant btw). The choir was tuned into him like a radar. Lovely to hear & watch. Bravo!

this is the best recording of this glorious piece. thank you for this gift

It's not just the sound--its also the way these folks are so focused on producing it.

The most beautiful rendition of this I have ever heard. Magnificent, flawless, sung from the heart.

Exquisite! About as close to perfection as humans can achieve. And that final "Amen"! Wow! Bravo!

Exceptional performance. Tears flow down from my eyes...

Merci pour ce partage de reconnaissance

This is what heaven must sound like.

This is my favorite piece by Byrd and this ensemble does an amazing job with it's performance.

cry cry...thank you

I thought Sir David Willcock's 1965 recording with King's College Cambridge could not be equalled. I was wrong. Beautiful in every way. And though traditionalists may balk at the hand gestures, I think they add to the singers' involvement and contribute to both the precision and the emotion of this fine performance. Thank you.

Beautiful. I can't get enough of this recording. As a tenor I would love to sing with the group.

Straordinaria esecuzione. Grazie.

magnifique!

Well done, Zene. It doesn't get/can't get any better than that

gorgeous!! I'm learning it and very impressed by your choir

1984 this our masterpice and we won 1st prize for this song..Salute to our Conductor and our choir group because if there's no teamwork there's no suceed..

So Beautiful

Absolutely beautiful.

This just beautiful. Perfect blending of all voices. Thank you

Stunning.

Très belle interprétation merci !

Outstanding blend! Great basses

Absolutely beautiful!

So beautiful!!

ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!!

Beautiful!

Stunning!!!

Absolutely brilliant 👌!

Quand le chant et le chœur s'harmonise à ce point, le résultat ne peut être que très beau. Je doute que l'on puisse en faire autant !

Gorgeous!

Wonderful. Thank you

this is soooooo good

Que dire de plus a part MAGNIFIQUE ! Je partage direct

Really fabulous.

Quelle splendeur ! voix admirables superbement orchestrées. Décidément, les ensembles anglais sont magnifiques : Voces8, the Tallis scholars, the kings singers, the Marian consorts.....et j'en oublie. Que de découvertes magnifiques. Merci infiniment pour ces voyages enchantés vers les Paradis de la Musique que vous nous offrez.

心が洗われます。

Perfomance excelente. Parabéns.

superb, most moving.

Bravo!!!

Wonderful! Absolute beauty! Thank you.

wow, beautiful work

Excellent- Beautiful version and performed with great feeling

❤️❤️❤️ perfeito

Oh yes oh yes....moar. PLEASE Lotti Crucifixus 8a

Lo hacéis estupendamente, cantáis con mucho gusto,sensibilidad y afinacion

Stunning!

Wonderful. Excellent performance . I adore singing this.

Amo esto😲😲😲😲😍

Exquisite.

the best version so far!

Thank you so much