Proms Chamber Music 1: Thomas Tallis (20.07.15)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Well............chacun a son gout and all that, but.....

I think my gout played me up a little less than yours did, DracoM () - generally I prefer a more sinewy, linear sound in this repertoire, having heard rather enough of the creamier approach of older performances and recordings. I thought Why fum'th in fight, Suscipe quaeso and O nata lux de lumine were all superbly done from both a technical and aesthetic point of view, and I greatly admired the change in timbre between the gentler Latin and "rougher" English settings. (Yes, I still haven't reach the point where I can listen to Fum'th without thinking of RVW's massed strings and Barbirolli's slower tempo - but the vigour here made sense from the point of view[s] both of the text and the rhythmic "bumps".)

But, I still have to "make adjustments" when listening to women singing this repertoire (like hearing a Consort of Viols with a violin) - I know why (professionals, times of concerts, school holidays etc etc) but one of the sopranos in this performance has a pronounced vibrato on all the long notes which stuck out for me particularly in Oh Lord, Give thy Holy Spirit - and the Countertenor had a particularly vinegary timbre to his voice that pierced through the texture, and ruined the balance between the three male voices in O Sacrum Convivium I felt. (He had some screechy moments in the Frances-Hoad as well.) Not, IMO, "on top of their game" here at all.

So mixed delight for me, but delight not doubted.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I thought they were very fine in the new commission - very difficult writing, and not entirely idiomatic on a first impression, but nice to hear a new compositional voice not in thrall to current stylistic trends.

Curiously, I thought they sounded less like The Cardinall's Musick and more like the BBC Singers in that work (not another gratuitous swipe at the Singers, just a comment wondering why, when writing for a specific ensemble, a composer doesn't make more of the specific sound of that ensemble).

As for "current stylistic trends" - well, it rather sounded like an awful lot of other choral works written by young composers emerging from the country's Colleges and Academies of Music: sort of post Giles Swayne-ish, which I suppose made it sound trend-y to me. One of the better examples, perhaps, but I felt it outstayed its welcome - like DracoM, I thought it wasn't Music I'd cross the road to hear again, for all its competence and proficiency. The trouble (for me) was that the rest of the programme consisted of Music I'd not hesitate to leap into traffic to take the risk of hearing.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Curiously, I thought they sounded less like The Cardinall's Musick and more like the BBC Singers in that work (not another gratuitous swipe at the Singers, just a comment wondering why, when writing for a specific ensemble, a composer doesn't make more of the specific sound of that ensemble).

That is surprising. I'll give it another hearing.