Rechercher des critiques de musique classique, opéra et ballet | Peter Phillips

2014 marque le centenaire du début de la Première Guerre Mondiale. Les Tallis Scholars ont choisi de célébrer cette date par un programme qui tourne autour des idées de conflit, de paix, de deuil, et de consolation.

In a celestial choir-off, one could imagine the Tallis Scholars giving the Seraphims and Cherubims a run for their money.

The Tallis Scholars and the Heath Quartet perform the music of John Tavener at the Royal Albert Hall, on the 100th anniversary of the start of Britain's involvement in the First World War.

Part of the White Light Festival at Lincoln Center, The Tallis Scholars gave a selection of music that ranged from John Taverner to Nico Muhly.

The Tallis Scholars have been one of the foremost Renaissance vocal ensemble since their inception forty years ago. This was the ensemble’s first visit to New Zealand (organised by Chamber Music New Zealand in partnership with the New Zealand Choral Federation and Dean Endowment Trust) and the performance quality made it worth every minute of the forty year wait.

“This is surely music at its most extreme, from any period,” wrote Peter Phillips, in a note explaining his “chalk and cheese” programme for The Tallis Scholars at the Proms on Wednesday night.

Celebrating their 40th anniversary year, The Tallis Scholars presented a programme of Renaissance polyphony centred around another anniversary – that of Carlo Gesualdo, the 400th anniversary of whose death falls this year. The first half of the concert was a complete performance of Gesualdo’s masterpiece, the Tenebrae Responsories for Holy Saturday (1611).

Singing polyphonic music requires a specific sound. To be truly effective there must be a beautifully rounded and well blended choral sound, but at the same time the individual lines must be clearly decipherable within the overall texture. This is a balance that The Tallis Scholars seem to find effortless.

It would seem that Easter has come early to Oslo. Friday marked the opening of the Oslo International Church Music Festival, a festival that this year is devoted to the ever-paschal theme of the passion. The opening concert was held in the Oslo Cathedral and was sung by the British vocal ensemble The Tallis Scholars.The concert focused on passion, in both senses of the word.

The programme for this concert – entitled “The Day of Thy Power” – comprised Robert Fayrfax’s Missa Tecum principium, and Tallis’ Lamentations I and II. In both Fayrfax’s and Tallis’ time, there was great political, social and religious unrest and change; the arrival of the Tudors and the actions of each successive heir to the throne brought tumult to England and beyond.

A competition for young composers run by the National Centre for Early Music may perhaps, at first glance, sound like a contradiction, but the winning pieces, performed tonight by the Tallis Scholars in Durham Cathedral, acknowledged the glories of early polyphonic choral music whilst conveying their composers’ own distinct musical ideas.

I wasn’t sure, at first, how it would feel to listen to sacred Renaissance works in St. David’s Hall, a modern, secular concert hall. I wasn’t convinced that the beauty of these pieces and the compositional effects, so suited to the vaulted lofts of a cathedral, would carry over when so far removed from their original context.

The last Sunday night before Christmas is traditionally an evening for carol services, but the Tallis Scholars gave a cool and stylish alternative, performing a selection of works devoted to the Virgin Mary at the Sage, Gateshead.

The first thing I must say about the Tallis Scholars’ Prom 28 is that it was my most moving experience of this year’s Proms so far. Bar none. When Peter Phillips’ ensemble comes to the Royal Albert Hall, the question in one’s mind is not whether they will give a world-class performance – they usually do.

As part of the Choral at Cadogan Series, the venerable Tallis Scholars, now in its 38th year, brought a serious programme juxtaposing the sacred music of the Spanish Renaissance composer Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611), whose 400th anniversary we are celebrating this year, and that of his Italian near contemporary Giovanni Perluigi Palestrina (1525/6-1594).