Tickets here.
Showing posts with label Sheppard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sheppard. Show all posts
Saturday, 10 December 2022
Monday, 21 September 2020
'The waiting is long...': The Sixteen provide welcome Music for Reflection in difficult times
The Sixteen
Harry Christophers (conductor)
Antonia Christophers (narrator)
7pm, Saturday 19 September 2020
(reviewed from online stream)
★★★★
Felice Anerio (c.1560-1614): Litaniae Beatissimae Virginis Mariae
Argo Pärt (b.1935): The Deer’s Cry
T S Eliot (1888-1965): Here let us stand, from Murder in the Cathedral
Josquin des Prez (c.1450/1455-152): O Virgo prudentissima
Arvo Pärt (b.1935): Da pacem Domine
T S Eliot (1888-1965): Does the bird sing in the south?, from Murder in the Cathedral
John Sheppard (c.1515-1558): Libera nos I
Josquin des Prez (c.1450/1455-1521): Pater noster, Ave Maria
Argo Pärt (b.1935): Morning Star
T S Eliot (1888-1965): We praise thee, O God, from Murder in the Cathedral
Tomás Luis de Victoria (c.1548-1611): Litaniae Beatae Mariae
Encore:
William Byrd (1543-1623): Mass for Four Voices, Agnus Dei
Pärt:
'Christophers judged the pace of Pärt’s pieces well ... and the rich lower voices provided firm grounding throughout'.
Shepard:
'The emotional highpoint, with its low bass cantus firmus underpinning the glorious soaring and falling sopranos'.
Byrd:
'Beautifully performed here by a solo quartet, this was a perfect, intimate and reflective conclusion'.
Read my full review on Bachtrack here.
Tuesday, 22 September 2015
The Tallis Scholars - 2000 concerts and counting!
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| © Eric Richmond |
The Tallis Scholars
Peter Phillips (Director)
Taverner (c.1490-1545): Leroy Kyrie
Sheppard (1515-1558): Missa Cantate
Gabriel Jackson (b.1962): Ave Dei patria filia
Byrd (c.1539-1623): Infelix ego
Ye Sacred Muses
Tribue Domine
Encores:
Tallis (c.1505-1585): Miserere nostri
Stanford (1852-1924): The Blue Bird
St John's Smith Square, 21 September 2015
«««««
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| © Albert Roosenburg |
2000 concerts in 42 years – an impressive statistic by any
standard. The Tallis Scholars, now performing at a rate of roughly 100 concerts
a year, with their founding director, Peter Phillips, chose to celebrate their
2000th concert in relatively low key style, compared with their gala
40th anniversary year concert at St Paul’s a couple of years ago. No
expanded forces for Spem in Alium
this time, but their more standard line-up of just 12 voices – a suitable way to
celebrate such an achievement of such regular and consistent live performance,
perhaps. However, three works from that concert appeared on tonight’s programme
(although one as an encore), appropriately reflecting The Tallis Scholars’
repertoire with Renaissance polyphony combined with a contemporary choral work
from Gabriel Jackson.
But the first half of their concert was dominated by a
performance of the mammoth Missa Cantate
by John Sheppard (1515-1558). Little is known about the detail of Sheppard’s life
and music, which goes only some way to explaining why his wonderful music is
not performed as often as Tallis or Byrd, say. One reason why the Missa Cantate in particular is not so often
performed is the incredible stamina required to sustain a complete live
performance. The Tallis Scholars wisely took short breathers between sections, yet
even then, this is a pretty relentless challenge for just 12 voices, 2 to a
part, with pretty much no let up.
Needless to say, The Tallis Scholars showed themselves more than up to
this challenge however.
They preceded the mass with Taverner’s (c.1490-1545) Leroy Kyrie, so called as it is believed
the tune may have been composed by King Henry IV or V. Immediately we heard The
Tallis Scholars’ trademark smooth blend and bell-like high sopranos, setting
the seen for the Missa Cantate to follow. In the opening Gloria, after the
initial entries, Sheppard weaves the lower voices in and out in an almost
hypnotic fashion, and the melismatic writing for tu solus (‘thou alone’) is exquisite, with more animation for cum Sancto Spiritu, and a glorious build
to the Amen. Sheppard works his way
through the Credo using the six voice
parts in varied combinations, but also uses unexpected harmonic shifts (such as
at ‘caelis’) to keep listeners and performers on their toes. Phillips and The
Tallis Scholars managed the ebb and flow of the music within the overall arc of
the whole mass with impressive ease, and the serenity of the Sanctus setting was contrasted well with
the emphatic Hosannas, ending with a
calming Agnus Dei, the lower voices
particularly smooth and silky here. Having reached the end, Phillips and The
Tallis Scholars deservedly enjoyed the sudden false relation and ‘blue’ notes Sheppard
throws in towards the final cadence.
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| © Joel Garthwaite |
The Tallis Scholars commissioned two works to celebrate
their 40th anniversary, one from Eric Whitacre, and the other from
Gabriel Jackson, and both were premièred at their anniversary concert at St
Paul’s two years ago. Jackson’s Ave Dei
patris filia opens with a joyful ‘Ave’,
with all voices swooping in birdlike fashion. The use of repeated turns,
particularly in the higher voices, is a striking feature throughout the work. There
is limited use of overt dissonance, really only obvious in the Ave plena gracia section, and its
economical use here is all the more effective for it, with bright soprano lines
in a tight interplay. Jackson also frequently sets a melismatic soprano line
against staccato rhythms in the other voices. These rhythms are particularly playful
and bouncy in the penultimate Ave virgo
feta section, which builds wonderfully to a return of the opening swooping
for the final glorious praise and amen. It was great to hear this wonderful
piece performed again, especially with the detail articulated in a slightly
less challenging acoustic than St Paul’s.
The remainder of the programme focussed on Byrd, with two
monumental votive antiphon motets that share a great deal in form and style,
despite being composed some 15 or so years apart. The structure of both is
comparable, with broadly similar shapes to their sections, and they share
Byrd’s unusual choice of transposed Lydian mode. They ended with Tribue Domine, the earlier work, but
first came Infelix ego. The text for this is a contemplation on Psalm
50 by the Italian priest Savonarola, written shortly before his execution.
Understandably full of anguish and penitence, it is ultimately a plea for
mercy, and Byrd mixes hefty sections of homophonic writing against a variety of
polyphonic writing for varied combinations of the 6 parts. Yet this is a subtle
setting – after total despair and the question ‘Despair?’, the answer, ‘Absit’ (I shall not) turns the priest’s
focus to seeking pity and mercy, and Byrd makes this distinction clear. The opening section from The Tallis Scholars
here could have perhaps had more anguish, but the increasingly insistent pleas
for mercy had real intensity, before the music subsides back to a more
subservient penitence for the final words.
Before Tribue Domine,
came Ye Sacred Muses, Byrd’s
heartfelt elegy to Tallis, following his death in 1585. The final words,
‘Tallis is dead, and music dies’ merit perhaps a little more emotion than on
display here, but this was nonetheless a respectfully sensitive yet firm
performance.
The Tallis Scholars then closed the programme with Tribue Domine. As with Infelix ego, Byrd makes much use of
varied part writing, but also a variety of dynamic textures, with animated
entries at the opening contrasting smoother overlapping falling lines at the
end of the first section, for example. The Gloria
section is substantial, and the build to the final Amen proved a fitting end to
this well constructed programme.
Not one but two encores followed – first the brief yet
achingly exquisite Miserere nostri from
Tallis, and then, slightly out of left-field, Stanford’s Victorian gem, The Blue Bird, with the two top sopranos
beautifully blended on the solo line.
With no sign of their schedule letting up in any way, the
concert tally will no doubt continue to rise indefinitely, but tonight’s
concert will certainly stand out as a landmark on the way towards their next
milestone. Happy 2000th!
Friday, 20 February 2015
BREMF Consort of Voices presents Regina Caeli
BREMF Consort of Voices, directed by Deborah Roberts, will perform music by two Tudor composers, John Sheppard and Robert White, to include White's beautiful settings of the Lamentations of Jeremiah.
Saturday 7 March, 6pm.
St Paul's Church, West Street, Brighton
Tickets here or on the door (£12, £10 concessions).
Click to find out more about Brighton Early Music Festival.
Tuesday, 18 November 2014
Puer Natus Est - BREMF Consort of Voices - 29 November 2014
There will be mince pies, mulled wine, fizz and candles - the perfect way to start your preparations for Christmas!
Saturday 29 November 2014, 6pm at St Paul's Church, West St, Brighton.
Tickets £12 (£10 conc) from here or on the door.
Friday, 25 April 2014
CD Reviews - April 2014
First,
music from American composer, John Adams
(b.1947). I saw his opera in 2009 at the ENO, Doctor
Atomic, which centres around the physicist J Robert Oppenheimer, and the build
up to the first test of the atomic bomb.
An unlikely ‘story’ for an opera perhaps, but then Adams has carved
somewhat of a niche for tackling political and controversial topics in his
operas (Nixon in China, and The Death of Klinghoffer, for example). I was absolutely blown away by the intensity
and drama of the music, and also the central performance of Gerald Finley as
Oppenheimer. However, transferring the
music from this to an orchestral symphony, as Adams did in 2007 to produce his Doctor Atomic Symphony, was a tricky
move. Yet for me, the music still holds
the energy, and the second movement in particular (titled ‘Panic’) is truly
terrifying. Adams transcribes the
stunning aria ‘Batter my heart, three-person’d God’, which Finley made his own,
for solo trumpet here, and it almost works.
Overall, the work stands as a coherent symphony, and it is energetically
performed here by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, conducted by Peter Oundjian. They follow this with
Adam’s popular concert work, A Short
Ride in a Fast Machine. This is a
great orchestral showpiece, and its energy and humour is irresistible. Here, the driving rhythms do not always feel
totally secure, but the drive to the finish is convincing nevertheless. The rest of the disc is then given over to Harmonielehre – which is a really a
three movement symphony. Composed in
1985, it was perhaps one of the earliest large scale orchestral works to emerge
from minimalism. Again, it contains the
same elements of drive, energy and power, achieved from Adams’ relentless use
of the clever combination of slow moving harmonies against fast, repetitive
rhythms, with hypnotic results.
Relatively
little is known about the life of the English Tudor composer, John Sheppard (c.1515-1558), and a lot
of the music that survives is incomplete.
However, the music we do have shows what a skilled writer he was,
particularly in combining and drawing on chant with choral textures. He also made especially imaginative use of
the soprano/treble voice, creating beautifully soaring lines which rise
wonderfully out of the choral textures from time to time. The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge, under Andrew Nethsingha, have recorded two of the more substantial works – the ‘Western Wynde’ Mass, and Gaude, gaude, gaude Maria virgo – and
interspersed them with a number of shorter motets and anthems. The opening Gaude, gaude is perhaps the most successful here, and the six part
motet, Spiritus Sanctus procedens is
given a convincing reading. However,
there are some problems of blend overall here.
The boy trebles produce a pleasant sound, but are not uniformly secure
particularly at the top end of the range.
Equally, there are some quite strong and individual lower voices which
stick out of the texture at times. I
suspect there are some budding solo voices here amongst the men, but that’s not
necessarily an asset in this repertoire.
Thursday, 7 February 2013
The Tallis Scholars - 40th Anniversary
This month I want to highlight some rather special artists who are celebrating their 40th anniversary this year – The Tallis Scholars, founded in 1973 by conductor Peter Phillips. They are launching their celebratory world tour with a concert at St Paul’s Cathedral on 7 March – if you can make it, I recommend you do not miss this one. They will be performed loved works such as Tallis’ 40-part motet Spem in Alium, and Allegri’s Misere, as well as premieres of works by Gabriel Jackson, Eric Whitacre, and the London premiere of Robin Walker’s I have thee by the hand, O man, a 40-part homage to Tallis’ piece. I’ll be there, and a review will follow. They’ve also released a great 2-CD volume called ‘Renaissance Radio’, including highlights of recordings from their vast back catalogue. And they’ve put together a great programme. There’s lots of Tallis, obviously, and Palestrina, Victoria and Sheppard are here too. They kick off the first disc with Allegri’s MIsere – but perhaps not as you know it. The version we are familiar with, so the story goes, is based on Mozart’s transcription of the ornaments as performed in the Sistene Chapel in Rome. After many years of performing the work, with over 300 concert performances under her belt, soprano Deborah Roberts (yes, our own Co-Director of Brighton Early Music Festival) added her own startling and striking embellishments, providing a wonderful twist to an old favourite. It’s hard to pick out favourites from this collection of 47 tracks – but apart from the Allegri, I’d have to include Mouton’s beautiful Salva nos, Domine (you can find a review of their full Mouton CD here), Brumel’s Agnus Dei II from his amazing ‘Earthquake Mass’, and Cornysh’s Ave Maria for men’s voices from the Eton Choirbook. The recordings span 26 years, and the roll call of singers runs to 60 plus, including many singers who have gone on since to solo careers (such as Mark Padmore, Charles Daniels and Michael Chance). If this wonderful ensemble is new to you, I highly recommend you start with this CD, get to the St Paul’s concert if you can, and then explore their massive back catalogue of wonderful recordings of Renassiance music and more.
Various. Rennaisance Radio. The Tallis Scholars, Peter Phillips. 2013. Compact Disc (2). Gimell. CDGIM 212.
(An edited version of this review will also appear in GScene magazine, March 2013)
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