Phantasm/Gustav Leonhardt/Tallis Scholars/Phillips, Queen Elizabeth Hall/Purcell Room, London
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.We began with some fanciful Tudor chamber music from Laurence Dreyfus's expressive viol consort Phantasm. This ranged from a well-contrasted selection of treatments of the sober "In Nomine" plainchant by Thomas Tallis, Robert Parsons and Alfonso Ferrabosco to a choice of items by William Byrd.
Two of his sets of dance variations particularly pleased, "Browning" and "Queen's Goodnight", the latter suggesting some remarkably frisky goings-on. We ended with Fantasia II in five parts, displaying Byrd's genius for weaving together duple and triple time, learned counterpoint and popular tunes.
After this, that founding father of post-war period performance, the Dutch harpsichordist Gustav Leonhardt, initially sounded disengaged and rhythmically uncertain in a programme of Elizabethan keyboard music. But he found his measure in an elaborate and virtuoso Fantasia by Byrd, and relaxed to deliver some of the lighter dance pieces with real snap.
And so to Tallis, probably 500 years old this year and, by now, perhaps the most popular Tudor composer thanks to his great motet "Spem in alium", in which 40 singers wind through sequences of vast, slow-moving chords. The augmented Tallis Scholars under founder Peter Phillips gave it twice: first, they sounded somewhat harsh, but the repeat was sublime.
In between, we had a conspectus of Tallis's long career, ranging from the vast early motet "Salve Intemerata" to the sweetness of the late "Suscipe quaesto" via an eloquent account of part one of the Lamentations of Jeremiah. The only cavil was that Phillips did not programme part two, with its still more haunting final appeal to return to the faith.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments