East Neuk Festival: The Tallis Scholars II
Bowhouse, St Monans 3/7/26
The Tallis Scholars, director Peter Phillips
Midsummer Magic
I don’t often go to the East Neuk Festival in that quaint corner of Fife, but when I saw that the Tallis Scholars were presenting two programmes of High Renaissance vocal music this year, I determined to get to at least one. I assume the first one was great, but the second, which I attended on Friday evening, was utterly magical. I have known of the Scholars for nearly 50 years and was at music college with the wonderful, and ever present, alto, Caroline Trevor, who also happens to be married to the director Peter Phillips. The group was founded, by Peter, in 1973 in Oxford, the year I went up to St Andrews University and discovered Renaissance polyphony for the first time myself. I must own the majority of their wonderful CDs, which have appeared regularly over the years on their own label, Gimell, but it’s actually a very long time since I heard them in the flesh, so to speak.
The astonishing thing is that, even though, as far as I am aware, Caroline was the only singer from those early years in Friday’s line-up, the sound is still recognisably that of the Tallis Scholars from the beginning, testament to the brilliant direction of Peter Phillips. And what a wonderful sound that is! Clear fresh sopranos, bright direct altos, often mixed with countertenors, pure unwobbly tenors, and sonorous baritones and basses. Readers will know of my love for the Gesualdo Six, and before them, the Hilliard Ensemble, but these ensembles sing one to a part. The Tallis Scholars rarely sing less than two to a part, and are much more a choral group than a vocal ensemble. This means that, inevitably, when needed, the Tallis Scholars can give what we experts know as a bit of welly, on the occasions that it is required!
This concert attracted me by its programme as much as by its exponents, a mixture of Tallis, Byrd and Lassus, and the full house at the Bowhouse was not let down. Initially, I feared the worst as we entered the building, which I believe was originally a cow shed or barn, as the Tallis Scholars are more used to singing in churches and cathedrals, but I was pleasantly surprised by the acoustic. Resonant yet not boomy, it gave enough back to the voices to provide clarity for the audience and some pleasure for the singers, and the intricate harmonies of these great 16th century composers were revealed to us very clearly. The smooth homogenous style of the Scholars is ideal for this amazing music, and we were royally entertained.
The concert began with the first group of the Lamentations of Jeremiah the Prophet, set by Thomas Tallis in or around 1560/70. The Lamentations record the prophet’s reaction to the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzer II, king of the Babylonian Empire in 587 BC, and the exile of the Hebrew population to Babylon (whence came the biblical and musical text, ‘By the Waters of Babylon, where we sat down, and Wept’). The whole text cites the many woes of the Hebrews, describing Jerusalem as a weeping widow, and ends with the desperate plea, ‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem, return to the Lord your God!’
Tallis set two parts of these lamentations, in quite different modes. The first is austere, serene, chilling, and yet so beautiful. Written for five parts, various groups use different pitches, often depending on which singers are available. The Gesualdo Six, being a male voice group, sing in a very low key, and when I sang the piece many years ago, we used a higher key. The Tallis Scholars seem to have taken a middle route, and the sonorities were perfect for a work of such sorrow. The transition from “all her friends are become her enemies” to “Jerusalem, return to thy God” was beautifully done, with internal harmonies clearly expressed.
Byrd’s Five Part Mass followed, one of three mass settings by the most established figure of English Renaissance music. His place in history also owed a lot to his longevity, as Byrd lived through all the convulsions of 16th century England, the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, Elizabeth I and into the reign of the Stuart king, James VI and I, dying in 1623 at the age of 83.
His mass settings are simple but deeply moving, written in the difficult times of 1580/90, when Catholic worship was prohibited across England, and traditional Latin masses would be celebrated in secret and fear. Byrd’s great fame at home and abroad made him less likely to be arrested, but he had to be really careful, as did those who sang his music. The five part mass, for treble, alto, two tenors and bass, was probably written around 1594, in the reign of Elizabeth, and was not based on any theme, such as a secular song or a plainchant, as the vast majority of previous mass settings had been, and this, I think, reflects the serious purpose of this work. No flamboyant excess appears in the mass, and the Tallis Scholars’ performance was suitably reflective of that feeling, especially in the profoundly beautiful and emotional Agnus Dei, the closing section which expresses our eternal hope for redemption – Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world, have mercy on us, grant us peace. Amen to that both in the 16th century and now!
After the interval, we heard the second setting by Tallis of the Lamentations of Jeremiah. These are even more extended and through composed, in, once again, an austere but very expressive style. The way Tallis meditates musically on the Hebrew words which introduce each section is masterly. Each chapter of the biblical lamentations has 22 verses, each introduced by the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and this is why the verses in the first set of lamentations are introduced by Aleph and then Beth.
The Scholars had, by now, an hour into the concert, fully come to terms with the slightly unusual acoustic, and I felt that the balance of voices and the variations in dynamic were, if anything, even better. Even though I know these settings intimately, having sung and listened to them many times over the last 50 years, I really felt I could simply sit back and luxuriate in the sound, marvelling both at the perfection of the performance and of the composition. This was as good as it gets, and I am profoundly grateful to the Tallis Scholars for coming to this little corner of Scotland and bringing us their artistry, honed over decades of singing, and reflecting on, the glories of Renaissance choral music.
As if this wasn’t enough, Peter Phillips and his brilliant group had a treat in store for us at the end of the concert. After all the austere grandeur of the Tallis and Byrd pieces, he and the Scholars metaphorically let their hair down with a rendition of Orlando di Lassus’ Missa ‘Bell’ Amfitrit’ altera’, a joyous riot of devotion and celebration, which also allowed the sopranos to come into their own after an evening of low notes! Lassus, originally from the Low Countries, but much travelled, ended his days a famous composer and Kapellmeister, in the service of the Duke of Bavaria in Munich, renowned throughout Europe. This exciting two choir mass setting was only published after his death in 1594, but reflects the style of singing established by Lassus in Munich. Based on a lost secular song, probably Venetian, it is the opposite of Byrd’s reserved and somewhat fearful setting, written for a court where the Catholic Mass was celebrated and honoured, and the Tallis Scholars clearly enjoyed the chance to let rip!
The audience was enchanted, and clamoured for an encore, and was rewarded by a performance of Tallis’s clever motet, ‘Miserere Nostri’, a seven part ‘feat of canonic writing involving retrograde movement together with several degrees of augmentation’ (my thanks to the Encyclopaedia Britannica for that!). It also sounded superb!
This was a wonderful concert, and great credit goes to the organisers of the East Neuk Festival for bringing the Tallis Scholars here, to the willing volunteers who make the concerts work like clockwork, and to the Scholars themselves for entertaining us so royally.