Chan Centre for the Performing Arts
Artists: The Tallis Scholars, directed by Peter Phillips
The two halves of this Easter program are linked by the idea of the earthquake, which traditionally occurred in the story of the Crucifixion. David Lang originally wrote sun-centered to accompany Antoine Brumel’s Earthquake Mass. He decided to focus on Galileo’s battle with the church authorities over whether the earth revolves around the sun, or vice versa, carrying into this narrative the fragility of human existence. In his Easter Propers, sung at the end of the second half of our concert, Byrd homes in on this fragility, taking up the reality of an earthquake in the motet Terra tremuit where, in no more than a minute, he depicts in music the terror of it. Lang’s music is divided into five movements, as are the Byrd Propers. Around these two sets the story of Lent unfolds, partly with extracts from the Lamentations (by Robert White and Nico Muhly), and partly with Whitacre’s beautiful vision of an angel in the Sainte Chapelle in Paris, hinting at the resurrection. Then Byrd presents the Easter story in all its hope, ending each movement with ringing ‘Alleluias’.
Generously Sponsored by The Graham and Gayle Cooke Foundation
PROGRAMME
Robert White (1538 – 1574)
Lamentations II
David Lang (b. 1957)
Sun-centered
Interval
Nico Muhly (b. 1981)
Recordare
Eric Whitacre (b. 1970)
Sainte Chapelle
Robert Parsons (1535–1572)
Ave Maria
William Byrd (1540 – 1623)
Easter Propers
Resurrexi
Haec dies
Victimae paschali
Terra tremuit
Pascha nostrum
The Tallis Scholars
Founded in 1973 by their director, Peter Phillips, the Tallis Scholars have established themselves as the leading exponents of Renaissance sacred music throughout the world. The ensemble is renowned for its purity and clarity of sound in its presentation of the Renaissance repertoire. The Tallis Scholars give around 80 concerts each year. In 2013 they celebrated their 40th anniversary with a World Tour, and now look ahead to their 50th anniversary in 2023.
Upcoming highlights include performances in Australia, New York and Boston, Amsterdam, Zurich, Paris, tours of Italy, a number of appearances in London as well as their usual touring schedule around the USA, Europe and the UK. In July 2022, to mark Josquin des Prez’ 500th anniversary celebrations The Tallis Scholars sang all eighteen of the composer’s masses over the course of 4 days at the Boulez Saal in Berlin.Recordings by The Tallis Scholars have attracted many awards throughout the world. The latest recording of Josquin masses including Missa Hercules Dux Ferrarie was released in November 2020 and was winner of the BBC Music Magazine’s much coveted ‘Recording of the Year Award’ in 2021 and the ‘2021 Gramophone Early Music Award.’ This disc was the last of nine albums in The Tallis Scholars’ project to record and release all Josquin’s masses before the 500th anniversary of the composer’s death.
Peter Phillips, music director
‘‘I got the polyphony bug when an undergraduate at Oxford in 1973. An ideal choral sound got fixed in my head at that time, and I’ve spent all the years since then trying to recapture it. Hence The Tallis Scholars. I haven’t done much else of creative importance – no novels or films – just a lot of concerts and recordings, and endless travelling. This in turn has piqued an interest in exploring the cuisines of the world, and even some of the languages, though rarely the right ones. A thorough grasp of Latin would have been good; Arabic has proved of limited value as a tool for promoting Christian sacred music. Other daft things I’ve done include: starting a choral foundation in Oxford’s oldest and most beautiful college chapel; writing a music column in the London Spectator for more than 33 years, planning a choir trip to the Antarctic so that the penguins may get to hear some decent music; and visiting a restaurant near my house so often that I now have my own table there. The best thing I’ve done is marry Caroline Trevor and help to bring up three children who, to my lasting relief and delight, have grown into very civilised people.’’
“Speaking of birds, it was also wonderful to glimpse Peter Phillips’s conducting: hands opening as if setting free a dove, or closing to punctuate with dotting-the-i’s exactitude. I found myself wishing I could get a choir’s-eye view to witness Phillips’ complete – lifelong – inhabiting of this music.” The Observer, September 2015
