Some time around the year 1275 an English monk traveled from Bury St. Edmunds in the county of Suffolk to Paris, possibly to enroll as a student at the great university there.  This monk, who is now conventionally referred to as “Anonymous IV,” has earned a special place in history as the main source of information on the extraordinary music of the Cathedral of Notre Dame.  Yet what would Anonymous IV have found if he had also made a journey to St. David’s Cathedral in Wales at around the same time?  This concert muses on this possibility in words and music, bringing together the virtuosity of the Orlando Consort, unusual readings based on historical research, and the optional collaboration of a local community or university choir.
 

“Reliving the past and recreating the circumstances in which music might have been performed can be amongst the most satisfying activities of the early music movement, particularly if the audience is invited to engage its own imagination too.  Over the Easter weekend the Orlando Consort provided just such an opportunity by conjuring up the sort of music a Benedictine monk might have heard in 13th-century Paris.”
—The Daily Telegraph