Siglo de Oro
New Town Church, 21/2/2026
The Georgian Concert Society, Siglo de Oro, The Tudor Grocer’s Music Club
One of the great things about writing for the EMR is the variety of concerts on offer. After luxuriating in the magnificence of the grandest symphony of the 19th century, Anton Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony, played on Friday night in the Usher Hall by the RSNO, I found myself on Saturday night in the familiar surroundings of the New Town Church in George Street, for a concert in the Georgian Concert Society’s season. The performers were Siglo de Oro (Golden Age), a small vocal group who started life at City University in London around 10 years ago. They specialise in innovative programming and their repertoire ranges from the Middle Ages to contemporary music.
Tonight’s group was formed of six singers – Sarah Keating (soprano), Lowri Bufton and Rebekah Nießer-Jones (alto), Paul Bentley-Angell (tenor), Patrick Allies (baritone and director) and Ben Rowarth (bass) – and they presented a programme entitled The Tudor Grocer’s Music Club.
Mr Allies introduced the evening, both wittily and informatively, and explained that an Elizabethan collection of music from 1585, the Sadler Partbooks, originally thought to be the property of a monk or priest, was now acknowledged to have belonged to a Grocer in Norwich called John Sadler. The concert was an imagined evening singsong arranged by Mr Sadler in his home in Norwich for friends and family, perhaps accompanied by food and ale, during which the company would sing through several of the pieces in the Partbooks, both sacred and secular, delving back as far as the beginning of the century for works by Sheppard and Taverner, but also singing hot hits by such as Byrd and Morley.
It was a good conceit and we heard a splendid selection of music of the 16th century, both deeply moving and also jolly good fun. Siglo de Oro started with a round by that great composer, Anon, from 1580, ‘Sing ye now after Mee!’ Starting with the bass voice, the other singers did exactly that, and the round continued with allusions to the sol fa system beloved of Maria von Trapp (do, re, mi!)
Different combinations of voices were used during the evening, and the only time all six singers sang together was in the final piece, a rousing motet by William Byrd, ‘Attolite Portas’ (Lift up your Gates, Oh ye Princes).
Highlights for me were ‘Salvator Mundi’ by Tallis, perhaps the most sublime short motet ever written, and the first piece I ever sang as an undergraduate at St Andrew University in 1973, the Gloria from the Western Wind Mass by John Taverner, Thomas Morley’s exquisite madrigal, ‘Sing we and chant it’ and the first part of the Lamentations of Jeremiah by Thomas Tallis. All of the music was sung with warmth and excellent balance by the singers of Siglo de Oro, who clearly enjoy singing together and have established a close rapport with each other.
The female singers were noticeably on a different vocal level to the men, but that discrepancy was somewhat negated by the splendid ensemble achieved throughout the evening. I have to give top billing to the soprano, Sarah Keating, who has the most perfect early music voice imaginable, soaring above the ensemble in ethereal tones, and yet not unbalancing the sound of the group.
I worked closely for many years with the Hilliard Ensemble, notably in Arvo Pärt’s ‘Passio’ all over the world, and still consider them the finest vocal ensemble I have heard, very closely followed nowadays by the wonderful Gesualdo Six. The Marian Consort and I Fagiolini, heard recently at the Lammermuir Festival, are both contemporary groups at the top of their game. Siglo de Oro are not quite in that exclusive league, but they are a splendid ensemble and they brought a lot of pleasure to a very decent audience in the New Town. Congratulations to the Georgian Concert Society for bringing them to Edinburgh.
