Tallis Scholars 03/01/2008
Saturday, March 1, 2008
8:00 p.m.
Mead Memorial Chapel
Tallis Scholars
Peter Phillips, director
The legendary Tallis Scholars have specialized in performing sacred choral music since their founding in 1973, though they are known for commissioning new work as well. They have created a long shelf's worth of definitive recordings, including the only early music album to win Gramophone's Record of the Year award. Their Middlebury program features the work that conductor Peter Phillips (knighted in 2005 by the French Ministry of Culture) calls the greatest choral work of the Renaissance: Tomas Luis de Victoria's Requiem.
Tickets: $15/12/5
http://go.middlebury.edu/tickets or 802-443-MIDD (6433).
Program:
Masterpieces from Spain and Portugal
MENDES Asperges me
CARDOSO Lamentations
LOBO Pater peccavi
LOBO Audivi vocem
MELGAS Ajuva nos
MELGAS Domine hominem
CARDOSO Magnificat Secundi Toni
- Interval -
VICTORIA Requiem
From the ensemble director:
"Part of my annual routine for the last ten years has been to take a course in Evora, Portugal. This course has the unusual luxury of being able to rely entirely on music written for the local cathedral in the renaissance period.The composers involved are not exactly household names, though the Tallis Scholars' recording of the Requiem by Cardoso has sold particularly well over the years - yet some of them were geniuses. The first half of this program is devoted to showing them off at their best, the most substantial works coming from the pen of Cardoso himself. It may strike the listener that some of this writing sounds like baroque music, and indeed the Evora school flourished in the early 17th century. But, as with the English of this period, a particular strength was found in mixing old and new in a polyphonic idiom.
Almost all of these pieces will be receiving their first performances in the US on this tour. Victoria's six-voice Requiem is arguably the greatest single piece of music to have been written in the High Renaissance. Conceived in 1603, the music was first performed at the funeral of the Dowager Empress Maria, to whom Victoria has been a private chaplain. Like all Requiem settings the music is essentially dramatic, moving from the contemplative mood of the opening Requiem aeternam, through the explosive concept of the day of wrath and calamity, back to the resignation of the final Kyrie. The Spanish of this period were famous for their mystical interpretation of Catholicism, and Victoria packs it all in to this masterpiece. As both priest and musician he was supremely well qualified to do so." --Peter Phillips
For additional program notes, please contact Events and Residency Manager Allison Coyne Carroll at carroll@middlebury.edu
Ensemble Biography
The Tallis Scholars were founded in 1973 by their director, Peter Phillips. Through their recordings and concert performances, they have established themselves as the leading exponents of Renaissance sacred music throughout the world. Peter Phillips has worked with the ensemble to create, through good tuning and blend, the purity and clarity of sound which he feels best serve the Renaissance repertoire, allowing every detail of the musical lines to be heard. It is the resulting beauty of sound for which the Tallis Scholars have become so widely renowned.
The Tallis Scholars perform in both sacred and secular venues, giving around 70 concerts each year. In April 1994 the group enjoyed the privilege of performing in the Sistine Chapel to mark the final stage of the complete restoration of the Michelangelo frescoes, broadcast simultaneously on Italian and Japanese television. In 1998 they celebrated their 25th Anniversary with a special concert in London's National Gallery, premiering a John Tavener work written for the group and narrated by Sting. A further performance was given with Sir Paul McCartney in New York in 2000.
Tallis Scholars' performances are recurring favorites on many series throughout the US. Their 2007-08 season includes returns to UC Berkeley/Cal Performances, The Da Camera Society in Los Angeles, Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon, The Miller Theater in New York, University Musical Society in Ann Arbor, Michigan, The Boston Early Music Festival, Middlebury College, University of Maryland, University of Chicago and the Kansas City Friends of Chamber Music, among other prestigious presenting organizations.
In recent years, they have performed in Germany, Spain, Italy, the Concertgebouw in the Netherlands, the Cite de la Musique in Paris, throughout North America, Japan, China, Australia, Singapore, and at many UK venues including Symphony Hall, Bridgewater Hall, Wigmore Hall, London's South Bank Centre and the Royal Albert Hall for the BBC Proms, where they appeared in July 2007 before an audience of more than five thousand people. 2007 also marked their debut at the Edinburgh Festival as well as a return to Moscow. Concerts in 2006 included their debuts in Iceland, at Ravinia and Tanglewood Festivals, alongside their second appearance at the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York.
The group continues to commission living composers and gave the world premieres of two works written for 40 voices, I have thee by the hand, O Man by Robin Walker and When the wet wind sings by Errollyn Wallen. In January 2006, they premiered Sir John Tavener's Tribute to Cavafy (the full realization of In the Month of Athyr, the work he wrote for their 25th anniversary), narrated by Vanessa Redgrave.
Much of The Tallis Scholars reputation for their pioneering work has come from their association with Gimell Records, set up by Peter Phillips and Steve Smith in 1981 solely to record the Scholars. In February 1994 Peter Phillips and the Tallis Scholars performed on the 400th anniversary of the death of Palestrina in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome, where Palestrina had trained as a choirboy and later worked as Maestro di Cappella. The concerts were recorded by Gimell and are available on both CD and DVD.
Two of their most recent discs, featuring the music of John Browne and Francisco Guerrero, have received exceptional reviews, the former winning the Early Music nomination at the annual GRAMOPHONE Awards in 2005. It was also nominated for a Grammy. Their latest disc presents the last word in embellishing Allegri's Miserere.
Recordings by the Tallis Scholars have attracted many awards throughout the world. In 1987 their recording of Josquin's Missa La sol fa re mi and Missa Pange lingua received GRAMOPHONE magazines Record of the Year award, still the only recording of early music ever to win this coveted award. In 1989, the French magazine DIAPASON gave two of its coveted Diapason d'Or de l'Annee awards for recordings of a mass and motets by Lassus and of Josquin's two masses based on the chanson L'Homme arme. Their recording of Palestrina's Missa Assumpta est Maria and Missa Sicut lilium was awarded GRAMOPHONE's Early Music Award in 1991; they received the 1994 Early Music Award for their recording of music by Cipriano de Rore; and the same distinction again in 2005 for their disc of music by John Browne. These accolades are continuing evidence of the exceptionally high standard maintained by the Tallis Scholars, and of their dedication to one of the great repertoires in Western classical music. The group's second DVD/Video was released in 2003; made in collaboration with BBC television and entitled Playing Elizabeth's Tune, it focuses on the life and works of William Byrd and features performances of the sacred music of Elizabeth I's favorite composer, filmed in the beautiful surroundings of Tewkesbury Abbey. This has recently received a unique five-star listing in the French music magazine, DIAPASON.
PETER PHILLIPS has made an impressive if unusual reputation for himself in dedicating his lifes work to the research and performance of Renaissance sacred music. Having won a scholarship to Oxford in 1972, Peter Phillips studied Renaissance music with David Wulstan and Denis Arnold, and gained experience in conducting small vocal ensembles, already experimenting with the rarer parts of the repertoire.
In addition to the Tallis Scholars, Phillips continues to work with groups around the world and gives numerous master-classes and choral workshops. He has made numerous television and radio broadcasts throughout Europe and North America and is also the author of the recently published, What We Really Do, a collection of essays to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Tallis Scholars.
Peter Phillips is the Director of the Oakham International Summer School, a choral course dedicated to exploring our great heritage of renaissance choral music, and to developing a performance style appropriate to it, as pioneered by The Tallis Scholars.
Artist Website:
http://www.thetallisscholars.co.uk/
Press Quotes:
"The Tallis Scholars remains one of the best ensembles performing this music now, and its sound is as richly blended and as beautiful as ever." -- The New York Times
"Mr. Phillips and his 10 singers produced the admirably polished, seamlessly blended sound that has become their trademark. . ." -- The New York Times
". . .an almost perfect blend. . .a thrilling and otherworldly sound. . ." -- The Chicago Tribune
". . .the Scholars sang with their trademark purity and grace, but also with great drive and force. Phillips is an aggressive conductor - in his hands, waving counterpoints become electric currents and crashing waves. This active undainty musicianship is a key to the Tallis success, as is their high estimation of their audiences' intelligence." -- The Los Angeles Times
"As ever, the Scholars' purity of tone and their way of creating an exquisite blend without losing pinpoint internal clarity were breathtaking." -- The Washington Post
"To hear them perform is one of the great live music experiences of our time, for in many respects, they perform at a level approaching perfection. Moreover, the splendid musicality and gorgeous sound of the group add a positively mystical aspect to a concert." -- The Boston Globe
