BBC Singers - BBC Singers in Tallis

In a performance given at Llandaff Cathedral, the BBC Singers under David Hill perform Thomas Tallis's mass Puer natus est nobis for seven voices. The work is considered one of the masterworks of Tudor sacred music. Composed, in likelihood, for Christmas Day 1554, it is based on a Latin plainchant melody which begins 'A boy is born to us, and a son is given to us whose government shall be on his shoulders'. But the piece marks not just the birth of Christ but also the longed-for birth of a royal heir - the Queen, Mary Tudor, who was mistakenly thought to be pregnant at the time.