Tallis Scholars at White Light Festival: Exciting yet meditative

The Tallis Scholars return, better than ever, in this full-length streaming concert.

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.

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).