Anyone who is paying close attention will notice something unusual about this album: why is the music of William Byrd – arguably the foremost English composer of the Renaissance period – being played on a modern piano? And the answer is: why not? Of course, the obvious rejoinder to that answer would be “Because Byrd didn’t write this music  for an instrument with the modern piano’s volume, timbre and dynamic range, which means the music is likely to sound weird and out of place” – to which I would then respond “Right, but you obviously don’t know Daniel-Ben Pinaar.” Pinaar’s approach to these works is not just respectful, and not just informed by an understanding of period approaches to articulation and ornamentation – it’s also innovative and quite personal. The result is a performance of Byrd’s music like you’ve never heard it before, and not just because it’s played on a different instrument. It’s being processed through a mind that comes to the music with both dignity and new ideas.