Investing in the magic of Purcell's music: The Fairy Queen from The Sixteen at Cadogan Hall

Dorset Garden Theatre in 1673 where Purcell's The Fairy Queen premiered

Purcell: The Fairy Queen; Antonia Christophers, Matthew Brook, Robin Blaze, Katy Hill, Alexandra Kidgell, Charlotte Mobbs, Mark Dobell, Oscar Golden Lee,, Ben Davies, The Sixteen, Harry Christophers; Cadogan Hall
Reviewed 25 September 2024

Focusing on the music, a stylish and engaging performance that drew us into Purcell's magical world, aided by a delightful narration

After the performance of Purcell's The Fairy Queen with Les Arts Florissants and Mourad Merzouki's Companie Käfig at the BBC Proms [see my review] where Purcell's music seemed to take second place to the virtuosic hip-hop-inspired dance, it was a pleasure to reencounter the work in an entirely different and more sympathetic musical context.

On Wednesday 25 September 2024, Harry Christophers and The Sixteen presented Purcell's The Fairy Queen at Cadogan Hall as part of Choral at Cadogan 2024. The soloists consisted of two visitors, countertenor Robin Blaze and baritone Matthew Brook, along with six members of the choir sopranos Katy Hill, Alexandra Kidgell, and Charlotte Mobbs, tenors Mark Dobell and Oscar Golden Lee, and baritone Ben Davies. The whole was drawn together using a narration by Jeremy Sams, performed by the actor Antonia Christophers, who is co-founder and co-artistic director of the theatre company, Box Tale Soup.

We had an orchestra of 21 and a choir of 18 (including those singing solo roles), so this was a generously proportioned performance. The choir remained stationery and for much of the 'action' the soloists simply stepped forward and retreated, but some episodes, notably the Drunken Poet (Matthew Brook with Charlotte Mobbs and Katy Hill), and Coridon and Mopsa (Matthew Brook and Robin Blaze), were more dramatised. What drew everything together was the delightful narrative. Antonia Christophers (who has in fact played Titania in the play) presented a slightly amused narrator cum Titania who repeatedly broke the fourth wall to mix descriptions of what should have been on stage with lamentations about the present lack of scenery, staging and actors. The result could have been horribly arch, but despite some rather false-sounding amplification, Antonia Christophers made the whole extremely engaging and helped to bind the disparate elements together.

Inspired by the Sistine Chapel: Peter Phillips & The Tallis Scholars explore some of the riches written for the Papal choir

The choir loft of the Sistine Chapel in the early 17th century
(1848 copy by Ingres of a painting by Agostino Tassi)

Inspired by the Sistine Chapel; Palestrina, Morales, Festa, Carpentras, Allegri, Josquin; The Tallis Scholars, Peter Phillips; Cadogan Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 26 January 2022 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★)
Music by Palestrina and his contemporaries showing off the richness of the treasures performed by the Sistine Chapel Choir

A whole host of musicians worked for the Sistine Chapel Choir, leaving a wealth of music that was written specifically for the choir. Often not well known, because the manuscripts were jealously guarded by the Popes, this is a repertoire usually known simply for a few highlights. At Cadogan Hall on Wednesday 26 January 2021, the Tallis Scholars and Peter Phillips presented Inspired by the Sistine Chapel, a programme of music written for the Sistine Chapel Choir. At the centre, of course, was the famous Miserere by Gregorio Allegri (c1582-1652), but there was also a wide selection of music from masses by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594), plus motets by Cristobal de Morales (1500-1553), Costanzo Festa (1495-1545), Elzear Genet (Carpentras) (c1470-1548), and Josquin des Prez (c1450/55 - 1521).

Running through the evening were a sequence of mass movements by Palestrina, all from masses written for the Sistine Chapel and showing the remarkable breadth and imagination of the composer's style, so we heard from Missa in te Domine speravi, Missa Tu es Petrus, Missa Papae Marcelli,, Missa Confitebor tibi Domine and Missa Brevis. All five movements were richly textured, the first three masses being six-part, the fourth being double choir and the final one, though four-part, adds a fifth voice in the second statement of the 'Agnus Dei'. And this was true of the motets too; the chapel choir might not have been large but they certainly seem to have relished richly written music and of course, the Allegri Miserere is written for ten independent parts.

Orchestras from the Czech Republic, Armenia, China, Russia and Hungary, and major UK choral ensembles: Cadogan Hall announces its orchestral and choral series for 2021/22

Cadogan Hall

Cadogan Hall has announced the 2021/22 season for both its Zurich International Orchestra Series and Choral at Cadogan, featuring orchestras from the Czech Republic, Armenia, China, Russia and Hungary and four UK choirs, the Tallis Scholars, the Cardinall's Musick, Voces8 and The Sixteen.

The opening concert of the orchestral season gives us a chance to hear a Czech orchestra in an all-Czech programme when Dennis Russell Davies conducts the Brno Philharmonic in Janacek's Taras Bulba, Korngold's Violin Concerto (with Chloe Hanslip) and Dvorak's Symphony No. 9. Korngold, whilst being thought of as Austrian, was in fact born in Brno. One of the interesting things about the season is the way the orchestras often play music by their countrymen. So the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra, conducted by its chief conductor Sergey Smbatyan, is bringing Khachaturan's Masquerade Suite plus music by Beethoven and Tchaikovsky. The China Symphony Orchestra (of Shenzhen), conductor Daye Lin, performs a piece by the contemporary Chinese composer Ye Xiaogang (interestingly his teachers include Alexander Goehr), plus Mahler and Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1 with Vadim Repin. 

And there is more Tchaikovsky from the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra (originally the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra), conductor Vladimir Fedoseyev, including Sergei Davydchenko in the Piano Concerto No 1. Whilst the Russian Philharmonic of Novosibirsk is conducted by Thomas Sanderling in Borodin, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius and Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 2 with Jennifer Pike. Andras Keller conducts Concerto Budapest Symphony Orchestra in Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, plus music by Beethoven (with Angela Hewitt) and Mozart.

Choral at Cadogan begins with the Tallis Scholars celebrating Josquin 500 including his Missa Hercules dux Ferrariae, whilst the Cardinall's Musick interleave works by two Elizabethan contemporaries, Byrd's Mass for four voices and music by Orlando Gibbons with works by two contemporary composers, Arvo Part and John Tavener. Voces8 brings a programme of music celebrating regeneration, including a new commission by American composer Taylor Scott Davis, music by the Icelandic composer Þorkell Sigurbjörnsson (1938-2013), Jonathan Dove and many more. Christmas will feature the regular visit from The Sixteen with a programme which mixes traditional items with music by Bob Chilcott and Alec Roth. 

There are more Choral at Cadogan concerts to be announced for Spring 2022, but the season will end with the Tallis Scholars' postponed Spem in Allium concert featuring Tallis' 40-part motet as part of an all-Tallis programme.

Full details from the Cadogan Hall website.

Ductus est Jesus: music from the Portuguese Golden Age from Gramophone Award winning Portuguese ensemble Cupertinos

Cupertinos, musical director Luis Toscano

Ductus est Jesus,: Manuel Mendes, Pedro de Cristo, Manuel Cardoso, Fernando de Almeida, Estêvão de Brito, Estêvão Lopes Morago, Bartolomeu Trosylho, Filipe de Magalhães; Cupertinos; Cadogan Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 18 February 2020 Star rating: 4.5 (★★★★½)
The Gramophone Award-winning Portuguese ensemble makes its UK debut with a programme of Portuguese polyphony from the Golden Age

The Portuguese vocal ensemble, Cupertinos, won a 2019 Gramophone Award (in the Early Music category) for its disc of Cardoso's Requiem and Lamentations on Hyperion. Directed by Luis Toscano, Cupertinos made its UK debut on Tuesday 18 February 2020 at Cadogan Hall as part of the Choral at Cadogan series. The programme, Ductus est Jesus, concentrated on music for Lent and centred on the Missa de Quadragesima by Manuel Mendes, along with Lamentations by Pedro de Cristo, Manuel Cardoso, and Fernando de Almeida, plus motets by Estêvão de Brito, Estêvão Lopes Morago, Bartolomeu Trosylho and Filipe de Magalhães, all Portuguese composers from the late 16th century and early 17th, the so-called 'Golden Age'.

The composers in the programme were all associated with the various religious centres in Portugal, and much of the music survives in manuscript. Many of the works performed, including the mass and the Lamentations by Pedro de Cristo and Fernando de Almeida, were transcribed and edited by Luis Toscano (music director of Cupertinos and Professor Jose Abreu (from the University of Coimbra). And one of the ensemble's aims is to present this unexplored legacy of Portuguese polyphony.

The fascinating thing about this period of Portuguese polyphony is that it took place against the background of the loss of sovereignty. In 1580, King Henry I of Portugal died, he was known as Henry the chaste and was a cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church who only came to the throne because his nephew King Sebastian I died in battle in 1578. As Sebastian had been the only heir to his grandfather, these deaths left a succession crisis which led to 80 years of Spanish rule, initially under King Philip II of Spain. It was against this backdrop, with many of the composers working for Philip, the Portuguese polyphony flowered. Inspired by music such as that of Palestrina (1525-1594) and perhaps ignoring contemporary Baroque developments in music in Italy, the composers of the Portuguese Golden Age seemed to create a distinctive Portuguese style which can be seen as some sort of reaction against the Spanish domination of the country.

Portuguese ensemble, & Gramophone Award winners, Cupertinos makes UK debut at Choral at Cadogan

Cupertinos, musical director Luis Toscano

On 18 February 2020, the Portuguese ensemble Cupertinos makes its UK debut at Cadogan Hall. Conducted by musical director Luis Toscano, the group will be performing a programme of 16th and 17th century Portuguese polyphony, mixing names that are familiar such as Manuel Cardoso (1566-1650), with those which are perhaps less familiar, Pedro de Cristo (1545/50 - 1618), Manoel Mendes (c1547-1605), Estêvão de Brito (c1570-1641), Estêvão Lopes Morago (c1575-1630), Bartolomeo Trosylho (1500-1567), and Filipe de Magalhães (c1571-1652), with music for Lent and from the liturgy of the dead and including at the centre the Missa de Quadragesima by Mendes. The group won a Gramophone Award in 2019 (in the Early Music category) for its disc of Cardoso's Requiem and Lamentations on Hyperion, and it will be good to experience them in person.

The eight-voiced group, directed by Luis Toscano, was founded in 2009 as part of the Fundação Cupertino de Miranda (Cupertino de Miranda Foundation) in Famalicão. Guided by Toscano and the musicologist José Abreu the group explores the golden age of Portuguese polyphony and they have performed around eighty works which have been newly transcribed from original sources. The group has strong links to the University of Coimbra, which has a very rich collection of Renaissance polyphony.

Created in 1963, the Fundação Cupertino de Miranda was created by Arthur Cupertino de Miranda (1892-1988) and his wife, Elzira Celeste Maya de Sá Cupertino de Miranda with the aim of promoting culture and supporting those in need, and the foundation has a Museum, a Library and an Auditorium

The fascinating thing about this period of Portuguese polyphony is that it took place against the background of the loss of sovereignty. In 1580, King Henry I of Portugal died, he was known as Henry the chaste and was a cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church who only came to the throne because his nephew King Sebastian I died in battle in 1578. As Sebastian had been the only heir to his grandfather, these deaths left a succession crisis which led to 80 years of Spanish rule, initially under King Philip II of Spain. It was against this backdrop, with many of the composers working for Philip, the Portuguese polyphony flowered. Inspired by music such as that of Palestrina (1525-1594) and perhaps ignoring contemporary Baroque developments in music in Italy, the composers of the Portuguese golden age seemed to create a distinctive Portuguese style which can be seen as some sort of reaction against the Spanish domination of the country.



If we are familiar with this music at all it is probably via performances by groups such as The Tallis Scholars, which has recorded Cardoso's Requiem, but Cupertinos brings a more Iberian sensibility to the sound-world of the polyphony, and after all what could be more satisfying than hearing a Portuguese group exploring the country's rich heritage of polyphony.

Further details from the Cadogan Hall website.

Westminster Cathedral Choir at Choral at Cadogan

Westminster Cathedral Choir

O magnum mysterium - songs of the Incarnation; Westminster Cathedral Choir, Peter Stevens; Cadogan Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 3 December 2019
An imaginative programme brings Westminster Cathedral Choir out of its usual habitat

Hearing performing group's outside their regular habitat can sometimes be illuminating, but not necessarily so. Last night (3 December 2019) the choir of Westminster Cathedral swapped the gloriously atmospheric cathedral (where the choir sings daily services from the apse behind the high altar), for the rather dryer acoustic of Cadogan Hall. The concert, an imaginative programme of music for Advent centred round the O Magnum mysterium text, was supposed to be conducted by master of music, Martin Baker, but illness meant that his place was taken by Peter Stevens, assistant master of music, thus adding an additional layer of disturbance to the proceedings.

The programme moved fluidly between the Renaissance and the present day, with settings of the O Magnum mysterium text by Victoria, Poulenc, Morten Lauridsen and Joanna Marsh, alongside Tallis' Videte Miraculum and O nata lux, and motets by Palestrina and Victoria, plus Bruckner's Ave Maria, Eric Whitacre's Lux aurumque and James MacMillan's O radiant dawn. Plainsong, of course, threaded its way through a lot of the Renaissance pieces and was explicitly in Tallis' Respond, Videte Miraculum, but the choir also included three pieces of plainsong which provided fine linkages.  There were two concessions to the more popular conception of the season, Howells' A spotless rose and Warlock's Bethlehem Down.

The choir fielded some 16 or so trebles, with eight adult singing men on the back row as tenors and basses, and a mix of two adult counter-tenors and two boys as altos. Some of the boys looked alarmingly young, one tiny boy seemed completely dominated by his huge black folder yet was clearly singing lustily. One of the eternal miracles of boys choirs is that the boys can seem to spend the entire concert not concentrating and not singing, yet producing a miraculous sound. Here there was a wonderful unselfconsciousness about them, they did not seem to be particularly fazed by being plonked on the Cadogan Hall stage.

UK debuts, Portugese polyphony, Danish music, Tallis's 'Spem in Alium', Ligeti's 'Nonsense Madrigals' and a Joanna Marsh premiere - 2019/20 Choral at Cadogan

Portuguese vocal ensemble Cupertinos

The 2019-2020 Choral at Cadogan series is the 12th such, presenting a striking array of choral concerts from the Tallis Scholars, the choir of Westminster Cathedral, the Sixteen, Cupertinos, the Danish National Vocal Ensemble, the Cardinall's Music and the Gesualdo Six, from 2 October 2019 to 18 June 2020.

The series is bookended by the Tallis Scholars whose conductor, Peter Phillips, is the artistic director of the series. And the ensemble will open with an all-Palestrina programme and close with a real treat, an all-Tallis programme featuring his Latin sacred music large and small, culminating in Spem in alium.

Martin Baker and Westminster Cathedral Choir bring a programme of music for Advent centred on the text O magnum mysterium including the premiere of a new motet by Joanna Marsh. Still in seasonal mood, Harry Christophers and the Sixteen will be bringing their Christmas programme.

Danish National Vocal Ensemble

There are two groups making their UK debuts, Cupertinos and the Danish National Vocal Ensemble. The Portuguese vocal ensemble Cupertinos, director Luis Toscano, is performing a programme of Portuguese polyphony from the 16th and 17th centuries with a focus on liturgies for Lent and for the Dead. The professional chamber choir of DR the Danish national broadcaster, the Danish National Vocal Ensemble, director Marcus Creed, perform a programme of Danish music from the 16th century to Carl Nielsen to the present day including works by Bo Holten and Bent Sørensen plus three of Bach's motets.

Andrew Carwood and the Cardinall's Musick perform a programme which mixes John Tavener and Arvo Pärt with Byrd, including the Mass for Four Voices and Gibbons. Whilst the Gesualdo Six, director Owain Park, will be tracing the evolution madrigal from Claudio Monteverdi through Palestrina, Marenzio, and Gesualdo to György Ligeti's Nonsense Madrigals.

Full details from the Cadogan Hall website.

An English Vespers: Rachmaninov from the Tallis Scholars

Sergei Rachmaninov in the 1910s

Rachmaninov All Night Vigil (Vespers); The Tallis Scholars, Peter Phillips; Cadogan Hall Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 15 May 2019 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★)
A lighter more intimate approach to Rachmaninov's Vespers, combined with the music of Sir John Tavener to striking effect

There is an English tradition of Rachmaninov's choral music, the composer even visited All Saints' Church, Margaret Street and heard the choir there under Dr Walter Vale perform Vale's English adaptation of Rachmaninov's Liturgy of St John Chrysostom. But it wasn't until the 1990s that performances of Rachmaninov's All Night Vigil by non-Slavic choirs became commonplace, until then one had to rely on recordings from Russian, Bulgarian and other Slav choirs, all firmly in the Russian Orthodox tradition. With the performance of the work by British choirs, with their very different choral technique, a different way of performing the work developed. Whilst still including the striking low bass parts, the results were often faster and lighter, making a virtue of the very different technique.

So I went along to the Cadogan Hall on Wednesday 15 May 2019 with realistic expectations of what we might be hearing when Peter Phillips and The Tallis Scholars performed Rachmaninov's All Night Vigil as part of a Rachmaninov and John Tavener programme for Choral At Cadogan.

The ensemble was expanded to 17 singers (with an all-female alto line), including the bass Jeremy White (familiar from the Royal Opera House) providing reinforcement on the low bass line. The programme interspersed the movements from the Rachmaninov with works by Tavener, plus Rachmaninov's setting of The Lord's Prayer from the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom. In the first half this meant slipping Tavener's Funeral Ikos between movements four and five of the Rachmaninov, which worked well. But in the second half we had Tavener's The Lamb and Lord's Prayer between movements 12 and 13, which seemed to sit more uneasily. Occasional corners suggested that the work was perhaps not quite as well bedded in to the choir as their regular repertoire.

In the Rachmaninov, the choir made a focused but quite light sound with Phillips giving us fast-ish tempos, though not slavishly so.

From Renaissance to Contemporary: the Gesualdo Six at Cadogan Hall

The Gesualdo Six (Photo Ash Mills)

Tallis, Byrd, Joby Talbot, Veljo Tormis, Gesualdo, Alison Willis, Gyorgy Ligeti, Luca Marenzio, Palestrina, Sarah Rimkus, Gerda Blok-Wilson, Owain Park, Jacob Beranek, Joanna Marsh and Rheinberger; The Gesualdo Six; Cadogan Hall Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 7 March 2019 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★)
Celebrating its fifth birthday, the young all-male ensemble in a highly crafted, eclectic programme

The Gesualdo Six vocal ensemble as just celebrated its fifth birthday and the six men, Guy James, Alexander Chance, Joseph Wicks, Josh Cooter, Michael Craddock, and Sam Mitchell, and director Owain Park, brought their programme Passion and Polyphony to the Cadogan Hall as part of the Choral at Cadogan series on 7 March 2019.

It was a programme of contrasts, ancient and modern, sacred and secular, with and eclectic mix of Tallis, Byrd, Joby Talbot, Veljo Tormis, Gesualdo, Alison Willis, Gyorgy Ligeti, Luca Marenzio, Palestrina, Sarah Rimkus, Gerda Blok-Wilson, Owain Park, Jacob Beranek, Joanna Marsh and Rheinberger, including the first performances of the winning entries in the ensemble's recent composition competition.

The Sixteen at Christmas - The Little Child

Harry Christophers and The Sixteen

The Little Child; The Sixteen, Harry Christophers; Cadogan Hall Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 18 December 2018 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★)
A nicely rounded Christmas programme which combined more serious elements with the eternally popular

Harry Christophers and The Sixteen have been touring their 2018 Christmas programme and we caught up with them at Cadogan Hall on Tuesday 18 December 2018 as part of Choral at Cadogan. Under the title The Little Child, the programme presented an intriguing selection of music which explored aspects of the Christmas story centred around the Christ child but which included more serious elements such as the Holy Innocents, and gave a nicely rounded programme without excessive Christmas kitsch. So there was music by Sweelinck, Howells, Richard Rodney Bennett, William Walton, George Kirbye, Kenneth Leighton, William Byrd, Palestrina, Giaches de Wert, Joseph Phibbs, Cecilia McDowall, John Sheppard and Peter Warlock.

We started with a bright and brilliant account of Sweelinck's Hodie Christus natus est, followed by Howells in a more thoughtful vein in Sing lullaby. The next three all linked the Saviour's birth to his mission using medieval texts, with an urgent account Richard Rodney Bennett's Susanni and Walton's bright and rhythmic All this time separated by the traditional The Saviour's Work, a piece with which I was not familiar at all.

Truly scrumptious: the choir of St George's Chapel, Windsor in music for Advent

Choir of St George's Chapel, Windsor

Music for Advent; Choir of St George's Chapel, Windsor, James Vivian, Luke Bond; Cadogan Hall Reviewed by Anthony Evans on 4 December 2018 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★)
An eclectic programme for Advent as part of Choral at Cadogan

On Monday December 4 in the Neo-Byzantine surroundings of Cadogan Hall the choir of St. George’s Chapel, Windsor under the direction of James Vivian with organist Luke Bond performed a programme of all things Advent. The eclectic choice of repertoire spanned more than 1000 years of music from the triumphant acclamation of Laudes Regiae to Arvo Pärt’s vibrant tribute to the Virgin Mary Bogoróditse Djévo

The choir’s largely a cappella programme kicked off with a somewhat underpowered Laudes Regiae. Placing the choir off-stage rendered this responsorial acclamation a little flat. I can imagine this working wonderfully in a church, but in the dry acoustic of the Cadogan Hall the impact was lost. Thankfully when the choir did emerge, they wasted no time in showing us what they were made of in Byrd’s Rorate caeli with a dulcet light and refined touch. But there were times in the first half when it all felt a little too decorous. Aided by some programming choices, I felt parked in a stylistic cul-de-sac and ached for a little more musical variety. Weelkes, that notoriously drunkard blasphemer, for example, wrote a simple but passionate anthem in Rejoice in the Lord that to my mind would have benefitted from a bit more oomph.

If the first half was stylistically a little samey, not so the second. The smorgasbord of delights after the interval finally heralded a celebration of Advent. From Brahms’ lush Es ist das Heil through Up, awake and away and Goldschmidt’s A tender shoot to Verdi’s delicious Ave Maria and Pärt’s emotionally charged Church Slavonic Bogoróditse Djévo all classily done.

Voices of Aotearoa - Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir at Cadogan Hall

Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir, Karen Grylls, Horomona Horo

Hildegard of Bingen, Princess Te Rangi Pai, David Childs, Mark Sirett, Jean Absil, David Griffiths, Helen Fisher, Jaakko Mantyjarvi, Samuel Barber, David Hamilton; Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir, Karen Grylls, Cadogan Hall Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 30 October 2018 Star rating: 3.5 (★★★½)
The New Zealand based chamber choir in an eclectic programme which combined composers and sounds from New Zealand with those of other traditions

Choral at Cadogan on Monday 29 October 2018 brought visitors from New Zealand to the Cadogan Hall in the form of Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir, conductor Dr Karen Grylls whose programme brought a mixture of New Zealand, European and American composers, combined with the artistic talents of Horomona Horo who interpolated his own compositions and improvisations on Maori instruments throughought the programme. Besides Horo, the New Zealand composers we heard were David Childs, David Griffiths, Helen Fisher and David Hamilton, along with music by Hildegard von Bingen, Princess Te Rangi Pai (Fannie Rosie Howie), Mark Sirett, Jean Absil, Jaakko Mantyjarvi, and Samuel Barber.

Writ large: Tallis Scholars in Thomas Tallis' Spem in Alium

Thomas Tallis

White, Sheppard, Sutton, Tallis; The Tallis Scholars, Peter Phillips; Cadogan Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 7 June 2018 Star rating: 4.5 (★★★★½)
Glorious Tudor polyphony from the Eton Choirbook to Tallis' 40-part motet

The 10th Choral at Cadogan series at Cadogan Hall came to a striking conclusion on Thursday 7 June 2018 when an expanded Tallis Scholars, conductor Peter Phillips, peformed Thomas Tallis' 40-part motet Spem in Alium as part of a programme which explored richly texture polyphonic music from the Tudor period, moving from the early Tudor period with John Sutton's Salve Regina (from the Eton Choirbook), through John Sheppard's Missa Cantata written during the reign of Queen Mary when large-scale polyphonic music came back, and finally Robert White's Domine, quis havitata and Magnificat from the Elizabethan period, with the final flowering of Tallis' 40-part motet.

Apart from the Tallis, many of the works in the programme were for six or seven voices but often composers sub-divide the parts at times to create a greater richness of texture. The Tallis Scholars performed most of the programme with a group of 12 to 14 singers, expanding to 40 for the final item.

One of the fascinating things about the programme was the use of melisma. The early Tudor composers like Sutton made extensive use of melismatic passages, so much so that at times the music seems to become divorced from the text as there are whole pages on a single syllable. Different composers have different approaches, but this sort of extreme melisma often disappears from the later Tudor period.

The Sixteen at Christmas

Marco Galvani

Poulenc, Palestrina, Marco Galvani, Allan Bullard, John Joubert, John Rutter, Kim Panter, Herbert Howells; The Sixteen, Harry Christophers; Cadogan Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Dec 18 2017 Star rating: 4.0
Poulenc, Palestrina and a brand new carol at the heart of The Sixteen's Christmas programme

The Sixteen at Christmas, the programme from Harry Christophers and The Sixteen which debuted at the Sage, Gateshead, and which we caught at Cadogan Hall on Monday 18 December 2017, had the advantage of combining familiar carols with more unusual fare and some meatier items. The centre piece of the programme was a pair of works by Francis Poulenc, his seasonal motets, Quatre motets pour le temps de Noel, from 1951/52 and his Winter sequence setting Paul Eluard, Un soir de neige written in Occupied Paris in 1944. In an intriguing bit of compare-and-contrast, the choir also sang a group of Christmas motets by Palestrina, setting the same texts as used by Poulenc. The French theme continued music by Costeley and a French chanson by Lassus.

A new carol by Marco Galvani, On Christmas Morn, commissioned to celebrate Classic FM's 25th anniversary, was joined by Kim Porter's Christmas Eve, and Herbert Howells A spotless rose, plus less familiar works by Alan Bullard, John Joubert, John Rutter and Bob Chilcott, and there were familiar carols too.

The first of Poulenc's Quatre motets pour le temps de Noel, 'O magnum mysterium' started dark and sombre and the sopranos floated their first entry beautifully though the first note was not quite effortless. This was quite a slow, beautifully shaped performance with little hint of the music's awkward corners. 'Quem vidistis pastores' was all transparency and fluidity, with lovely rhythmic pointing, plus firmness of purpose at 'Dicentes'. 'Videntes stellam', quite steady and rather striking, was not a little mystical. 'Hodie Christus natus est' was crisply vivid and articulated, rather than going full pelt. I could imagine a performance that was more dramatically intense, but this one was full of details and expressive beauty.

Divine Consolations: Stile Antico in Schütz & Bach at Cadogan Hall

Stile Antico (Photo Marco Borggreve)

Schütz, Bach, Lassus, Handl, Hassler, Daser Knofel; Stile Antico; Cadogan Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Nov 23 2017 Star rating: 3.5
Intimate accounts of two great monuments of German Baroque music in this intelligent programme

For its concert at Cadogan Hall on Thursday 23 November 2017 as part of Choral at Cadogan, the vocal ensemble Stile Antico brought a programme based on two monuments of the German Baroque vocal music, Heinrich Schütz's Musikalische Exequien (from 1636) and Johann Sebastian Bach's motet Jesu meine Freude (from the 1720s). Both works are in some sense funerary, Schütz's piece was written for the funeral of Henry II, Count of Reuss-Gera, whilst Bach's also seems to have been written for a similar occasion. To this pair of works the ensemble added a selection of Latin motets on similar themes, a choice which at first seems strange but which was informed by the knowledge that Bach's choir in Leipzig performed this Latin repertoire regularly. The members of the ensemble were supported by a continuo group of organ (Oliver John Ruthven), theorbo (Alex McCartney) and violone (Kate Aldridge).

The evening opened with a calm and unhurried account of Orlande de Lassus' motet Justorum animae. Perhaps a little but too self-consciously calm, but the music was beautifully shaped indeed .

Schütz's Musikalische Exequien followed; this is a large scale work, setting a selection of scriptural text chosen by the Count of Reuss-Gera before his demise. As such, it pre-figures Brahms' Deutches Requiem.

Familiar and unfamiliar: Tallis Scholars at Cadogan Hall

Peter Phillips and the Tallis Scholars

Palestrina, Monteverdi, Allegri, Gesualdo, Lotti; The Tallis Scholars, Peter Phillips; Cadogan Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Sep 22 2017 Star rating: 4.0
The Tallis Scholars open the 10th Choral at Cadogan series with Italian motets on the cusp of Renaissance and Baroque

The Tallis Scholars and Peter Phillips opened the 10th season of Choral at Cadogan on Friday 22 September 2017 with a programme of Italian motets at Cadogan Hall. The programme ranged from Palestrina, through Gesualdo and Monteverdi (including the Messa quattro voci da cappella) to Lotti, with Allegri's Miserere as a bon bouche.

The have been a few changes in the ensemble (Amy Haworth, Emma Walshe, Emily Atkinson, Charlotte Ashley, Caroline Trevor, Helen Charlston, Steven Harrold, Simon Wall, Simon Whitely, Greg Skidmore) with some regular members moving on, and the sound did not always feel completely bedded in, though perhaps that was the effect of the Summer holidays. The group started with Palestrina's Laudate pueri, in a strong, up-front performance where there was far more of a sense of individual voices than we are used to with this group. It was a large scale piece, and made a terrific concert opener. More intimate Palestrina followed with Virgo prudentissima, with some beautifully shaped phrasing, vibrant but controlled.

Choral at Cadogan at 10

Choral at Cadogan returns to Cadogan Hall in September 2017 for the tenth series with eight concerts showcasing choirs and vocal ensembles. The Tallis Scholars, artistic director Peter Phillips, open and close the series and there are concerts from The Sixteen, Stile Antico, Vox Luminis, the National Youth Chamber Choir and the Choir of King's College, Cambridge. 

The Tallis Scholars first concert features Monteverdi's works in the prima prattica style, unaccompanied polyphony following the example of Palestrina, and the concert will also feature music by Palestrina, Allegri, Gesualdo and Lotti. The choir returns in June 2018 in expanded form to perform Tallis's 40-part Spem in Alium alongside large-scale works by Sheppard, White and Sutton.

Stile Antico is joined by organist Oliver John Ruthven and violone player Kate Aldridge for music of the German Baroque including Schutz's Musiklische Exequien and Bach's Jesu meine Freude, plus music by Handl, Hassler, Daser and Knofel.

The Sixteen and Harry Christophers bring their Christmas programme, Glory to the Christ Child, which includes Poulenc's Quatre motets pour le temps de Noel and his profoundly moving Un soir de neige alongside more popular Christmas Fare. And still in a Christmas mood, the Temple Church Choir, conductor Roger Sayer, bring their Christmas programme with a selection which moves from Sweelinck's Cnatatye domino and Reger's Maria Wiegenlied to The Twelve Days of Christmas and Howard Blake's The Snowman.

The National Youth Chamber Choir, conductor Ben Parry, presents a range of music all written when the composer were in their youthful twenties, with music by Monteverdi, Britten, Owain Park, Billy Joel, Sting and more. The Choir of King's College, Cambridge, conductor Stephen Cleobury, perform music inspired by Lent and Holy Week including Tallis's Lamentations, Stabat mater settings by Palestrina and Lassus, Poulenc's Lenten motes and motets by Brahms. The Belgian group Vox Luminis, director Lionel Meunier, will be performing works by Tallis and Sheppard.

Full details from the Cadogan Hall website.

The Tallis Scholars' Spanish Renaissance

El Transparente of Toledo Cathedral

Morales, Victoria, Lobo; The Tallis Scholars, Peter Phillips; Cadogan Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on May 17 2017
Star rating: 4.0
Rich textures from the Spanish golden age in the Tallis Scholars final Cadogan Hall concert of the season

Peter Phillips and the Tallis Scholars were in Iberian mood for their concert at Cadogan Hall on Wednesday 17 May 2017, the final concert in the 2016/17 Choral at Cadogan Series. A Spanish Renaissance included a performance of the Missa Mille regretz by Christobal de Morales, alongside motets by Morales and Tomas Luis de Victoria, plus Alonso Lobo's Lamentations and finishing with Victoria's Magnificat primi toni.

Phillips explained that the group was giving a concert in Toledo Cathedral, and we were getting a preview of the programme which included music by two composers associated with the cathedral, Morales (who was chapelmaster from 1545 to 1547) and Lobo (who was chapelmaster from 1593-1604).

Morales' Missa Mille regretz is based on a chanson, Mille regretz, attributed to Josquin; the chanson also went under the name of La cancion del Emperador (The Emperor's Song), the emperor in question being Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain. Morales' mass takes material from the chanson and creates a six-part mass, with the chanson appearing generally in the soprano . But before the mass, four singers from the ensemble performed Josquin's stunningly beautiful and rather melancholy song.

The Food of Love: settings of the Song of Songs from Ensemble Plus Ultra

Illustration for the 1st verse of the Song of Songs,
a minstrel playing before Solomon
(15th century Rothschild Mahzor)

The Food of Love - Song of Songs Victoria, Palestrina, Lassus, Ceballos; Ensemble Plus Ultra; Cadogan Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Feb 16 2017
Star rating: 4.0
Beautifully realised vocal ensemble performances of texts which hover between sacred and secular

Ensemble Plus Ultra made its Cadogan Hall debut as part of the Choral at Cadogan series on Wednesday 15 February 2017, with a programme of settings of the Song of Songs by Victoria, Palestrina, Lassus, and Ceballos, interleaved with readings of Shakespeare's sonnets. The ensemble, soprano Grace Davidson, mezzo-soprano Martha McLorinan, counter-tenor David Martin, tenors William Balkwill and Simon Wall and bass Jimmy Holliday, makes something of a speciality of music from the Spanish Golden Age but in this programme they also visited Rome for the music of Palestrina and Munich for the music of Lassus.

Liturgically the text of the Song of Songs was taken to refer to the Church as the bride of Christ, though not all settings of the texts from the Song of Songs were written to be used liturgically. Palestrina's 29 settings may well have been designed for private performance, we don't really know. And some of the texts get a bit near the knuckle for liturgical use. Composers responses to the texts varied, with settings ranging from the positively madrigalian with lots of word colouring, to the simple pure lines of classic Palestrina.

The programme opened with three settings of Nigra sum sed formosa, by Victoria and by Palestrina with chant in the middle. In Victoria's setting the group brought out a real sense of the word play, with some vivid interaction between different groupings, whereas Palestrina's response was much more smooth lines and nice blend. In between we had the poised chant sung by the two women in the group.

The ensemble consists of some of the most experienced consort singers around, and this shows in the group's combination of blend and character; individual lines were characterised but the whole was highly responsive. I felt that they took some time to quite get the measure of the tricky acoustic of the Cadogan Hall and balance in some of the early items in the programme was not ideal.

I felt that the group did not always get beyond the calm beauty of Palestrina's music. Their performance of his four-part Surge propera was perfectly done but it was the more extrovert, madrigalian five-part setting which came alive. The same was true of Trahe me post where they really brought out Palestrina's mobile lines, whereas his Osculetur me was perfectly poised and controlled.

Christmas with St John's

Choir of St John's College, Cambridge - photo Benjamin Ealovega

Jonathan Harvey, Robert Parsons, RVW; Choir of St John's College, Cambridge, Andrew Nethsingha; Cadogan- Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Dec 12 2016
Star rating: 4.5
Fine survey of the Christmas story in contemporary and traditional music

The Cadogan Hall is firmly in Christmas mode with decorations, a huge tree and mulled wine, and the latest Choral at Cadogan concert joined in the fun on Monday 12 December 2016 as Andrew Nethsingha and the choir of St John's College, Cambridge gave us a programme of Christmas music. But this wasn't a straightforward romp through Christmas classics, Andrew Nethsingha had put together a programme which mixed the well known with the lesser known, including two solos from assistant organist Joseph Wicks and organ scholar Glen Dempsey. So the programme moved from Jonathan Harvey and Robert Parsons, through Carl Rütti, Elizabeth Poston and RVW to Ivor Atkins version of Peter Cornelius's The Three Kings and a couple of carols. We also moved from the Annunciation through the Virgin Birth, to the Shepherds and finally the Three Kings.

Whilst the concert's programme had a lot in common with St John's recent disc Christmas with St John's, it has to be born in mind that the disc was recorded almost a year ago, and the choir has changed since then. There has been another academic year, another intake of young men, a moving on of treble whose voices break and a welcoming of new junior trebles. A choir like that of St John's is always in a state of flux, so the striking thing is how consistently the ensemble remains true to its aims.

We opened with Jonathan Harvey's 2011 piece, The Annunciation written for the choir and one of the composer's last pieces.