Thomas and Hildegard

The Tallis Scholars performed at Canberra Theatre and it appeared a full house.  They sing sacred music a capella.  The songs of Hildegard were performed by 3 or 4 females, singing in unison with no conductor, but maybe my ears weren't so good.  The singing seemed so perfect, so precise. I discretely tested on my tuner and the vocals were nothing like that.  Listening more closely, I could hear the variations in pitch but it was a surprise. I guess voice requires that anyway to sit, like orchestral strings with their vibratos. The other pieces, mostly by Arvo Part, were performed by 6 women and 4 men with conductor. Allegri Miserere was five plus conductor on stage and 3 off.  There was an encore but I didn't catch the details. This introduction was the one time MD Peter Phillips spoke to the audience, to name the encore, to mention that they'd played in Llewellyn, what, ~9 times previously, once sometime around the collapsed ceiling, and to promote the availability of CDs and even a novel by PP himself about being a pro-muso in London.  It's not easy anywhere, especially in these days of streaming.  I'd seen tell of a 2hr20min duration with interval but it was less than 2 hours and it passed easily, the tunes so pure and clear and delicious, of that early era, but also with b9s and b6s and some chromatic chord movements, perhaps in Arvo Part.  A lovely revisit to this era with some really classy proponents.

The Tallis Scholars performed at Canberra Theatre under Peter Phillips (MD, conductor, founder, [author]).

Extraterrestrial

I guess you'd say ethereal or other worldly. Certainly, Fiona Maddocks, in The Observer, described the Tallis Scholars as "as near extraterrestrial as you can get sitting in a concert hall". They sing music from an era when the certainty of another world, the nostrums of religion, was omnipresent, but also of centres of wealth and political power to be served. Their 1%. Certainly, this was very beautiful music sung very, very beautifully. This is polyphony, multiple harmonic lines, perhaps 7 or 8, interweaving. Voices unaccompanied but conducted. TS were conductor and 10 singers, five each of male and female voices. This was their eighth performance at Llewellyn Hall: their first was in 1985. They read their parts. They performed five pieces before and five after interval, and an encore. The pieces were genuine period - Philips, Tallis, Tavener, Clemens, Phinot, Crecquillon, Byrd - with a few modern composers in that idiom, Pärt and Muhly. Drones, polyphonic lines, parallel but delayed and pitch shifted, fugal. Strangely, I heard the sounds of hurdy gurdy at one time. The Muhly was perhaps my favourite, all big intervals and chromatics and tritones. The voices were beautiful, all supremely controlled, gentle entries and ends, with careful overall dynamics and internal balance within the group. Perhaps it lacked the cathedral echo we expect with this music, but it was sufficiently strong to comfortably fill the big Llewellyn space. Not that this is loud or intrusive music. Despite being described as rock stars of the style, there was just one on-stage patter (offering CDs for sale in the foyer) then introducing the encore, a Victorian madrigal. Then a dignified march off stage. The program handed out on entry described the music, but didn't list names. The website lists Peter Phillips as musical director and 8 named singers but some photos on the site show the full eleven. A moving feast, I guess, of period polyphony. That fits. So, despite some queries, this was a night of gloriously beautiful singing and some outstanding voices.

The Tallis Scholars performed at Llewellyn Hall under Peter Phillips (conductor).