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In 2020, ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio 3 is bringing together musical greats, from the past and the present, in one extraordinary Proms season. Radio 3 is broadcasting the best of four decades of unmissable Proms concerts.

Today's concert, introduced by Petroc Trelawny, comes from 2016, when vocal ensemble Stile Antico and viol consort Fretwork combined to celebrate the 400th anniversary year of the death of England’s great bard, William Shakespeare. Their programme contrasts music by Shakespeare’s contemporaries with new settings from Nico Muhly and Composer in Association with the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ National Orchestra of Wales, Huw Watkins. In the words of Shakespeare himself, ‘How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank! Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music creep in our ears …’

Morley: It was a lover and his lass
Byrd: O Lord, make thy servant Elizabeth
Byrd: Why do I use my paper, ink and pen?
Huw Watkins: The Phoenix and the Turtle
Byrd: Fantasia a 5, 'Two parts in one in the fourth above’
Tomkins: Be strong and of a good courage
Ramsey: Sleep, fleshly birth
Byrd: Browning a 5, 'The leaves be green’
Johnson: Full fathom five
Nico Muhly: Gentle sleep
Gibbons: In nomine No 1
Wilbye: Draw on, sweet night

Fretwork
Stile Antico

(From the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Proms, 15 August 2016)