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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!
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