Featured Album November 2025: PIVA "The Faerie Round"

This month, we are pleased to introduce the new album by PIVA, The Renaissance Collective. With group members Eric Moulder, Jane Moulder, Tony Millyard and David Jarratt-Knock showcasing their instruments at the London International Festival of Early Music this month, and Tony performing on hurdy-gurdy in the latest of our Informal Recitals at Snape Maltings, it is a fitting time to feature this energetic and varied collection.

The Faerie Round: Music from the time of Elizabeth I
PIVA: The Renaissance Collective

OUR FEATURED ALBUM FOR NOVEMBER 2025

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From the artist's press release:

This is PIVA’s long awaited third CD and for this the group returns to further explore the English repertoire of late Elizabethan England. The Faerie Round is PIVA’s homage to Queen Elizabeth I and it features all the usual hallmarks of the band – from the quiet and contemplative to the rousing and stirring!

PIVA is one of the UK’s leading early music ensembles and they specialise in dance and ballad music of the late renaissance. Playing an array of period instruments, they're known for their innovative and energetic arrangements. Multi-instrumentalists, with backgrounds in renaissance, classical and roots music, they combine their influences to create music of the past played for today.

“A stunningly beautiful album”, “just a singular succinct verdict ….FAB!!”

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Why The Early Music Shop loves "The Faerie Round":

A rousing multi-instrumental journey around Elizabeth I’s reign greets us on The Faerie Round, the long-awaited third album from PIVA – The Renaissance Collective. Performed on a range of different broken consorts comprising shawms, cornetts, recorders, curtals, viols, crumhorns and more, the album offers a varied range of compelling tones and colours throughout its 66-minute runtime. Pavanes, galliards, almans and other dance tunes abound, and one can imagine PIVA making their presence known in the royal court, had they lived 450 years earlier.

Performing a mixture of well-known melodies from the era, such as Anthony Holborne’s Wanton and William Byrd’s Earl of Oxford’s March, along with some lesser-heard hidden gems, the musical interplay is central to the album’s success. While there’s much to enjoy across all the instruments featured, it’s often the woodwind playing that stands out – hardly surprising, given that group members Eric Moulder, Jane Moulder, Tony Millyard and David Jarratt-Knock are amongst the finest makers of period wind instruments in the country.

The softer strings and recorders are sometimes overshadowed in dynamic – such is the challenge of working in a broken consort with more powerful reed instruments – but the playing is still lively and highly rhythmic, with a particularly impactful recorder solo on the energetic second tune of Kemp’s Jigs. A new arrangement of The Browning Fantasy The Leaves Be Green presents a commonly-heard melody in a rich texture, while the hurdy-gurdy makes a fashionably late appearance on the closing track, some French-style tunes as published in the Mulliner Book (c.1560).

The clear passion of the ensemble for this repertoire and its history is evident, particularly Eric Moulder whose arrangements feature throughout the programme, and Jane Moulder, whose sleeve notes provide useful insight and context. As noted, English music of this era is much less documented than its continental contemporaries due to a smaller music publishing industry. That said, PIVA have shaped an engaging and spritely programme which strikes a careful balance between respecting the music’s history and applying the necessary creativity to fit with their ensemble.

While a CD is arguably no replacement for a live performance on instruments such as these, this well-captured recording is a great representation of a group working hard to keep this fascinating and enjoyable repertoire alive in the modern age.

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The Faerie Round is available from The Early Music Shop online or in-store at our Snape Maltings showroom!

Click here to order now!

Click below to watch an in-depth interview with Jane Moulder covering the background of the album: