Carl Vine Child’s Play is a double album of chamber music by one of the most approachable and—with an output embracing eight symphonies, thirteen concertante works, numerous chamber works plus music for film, television, dance and theatre—prolific composers of our day. The album also marks the final recording of the Goldner String Quartet, whose members have chosen to honour the occasion in the company of friends, including long-time collaborator Piers Lane. The album’s title is taken from the String Quartet No 6: in his booklet note, Vine writes of being commissioned to create music that ‘uplifted, edified and elated’, and April’s Record of the Month offers eloquent proof of his success.

‘England one God, one truth, one Doctor hath / For Musicks Art, and that is Doctor Tye, / Admir’rd for skill in Musickes harmonie.’ These lines may have been written posthumously, and by the composer’s putative grandson, but there is no reason to doubt their essential sincerity. Christopher Tye: The Peterhouse Mass & other works offers a welcome opportunity to evaluate the ‘skill in music’s harmony’ of a direct contemporary of Thomas Tallis. Like Tallis, Tye had to negotiate the perilous musical and ecclesiastical politics of four English monarchs, from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I (who is alleged to have complained that Tye’s organ playing ‘contain’d much musick, but little delight to the ear’). Listeners to this new release from the all-male voices of Cinquecento can be assured that it contains much music and a great deal to delight the ear.