Music and Monarchy
St John’s Church, South Parade
14 March 2020 7:30pm
You can find the programme here
Music and Monarchy featured some much loved treasures of the Tudor period such as If Ye Love Me by Thomas Tallis and William Byrd’s Mass for Five Voices
as well as works in English by Thomas Tomkins, Orlando Gibbons and Thomas Morley. Slightly less well known is John Sheppard’s Libera Nos. The concert took the listener from the elaborate and melismatic music of Catholic England to the simpler and more austere pieces from the Reformation. Music by Roxanna Panufnik, Kerry Andrew and Roderick Williams provided modern responses.
Review by Anthony Corfe:
From those early notes
Now were woven chords afresh.
The heart’s mystic gold.
Another richly innovative performance by the Paragon Singers under Sarah Latto, this time focussing on the glories of Tudor Church music with a contemporary ‘take’ on three of them, by Roderick Williams, Kerry Andrew and Roxanna Panufnik. What was particularly
interesting was the care that had been put into the ascribing of all the pieces to their historical context, with three separate readings, not to mention the excellent programme notes.
But to the performance itself: once again we were treated to the wonderfully rich and balanced sound of the choir. But there was more than just that. Extended moments where you could tell how words were playing such an important part. Two examples, both from Byrd’s Ave Verum Corpus: “O Jesu dulcis,” sung by two sopranos – full of wondrous reverence, and “Misere mei.” abject humility. Both superbly characterised.
The second ‘take’ was on Tallis’s five-part motet O Nata Lux by Andrew. This was as extraordinary as it was fascinatingly beautiful, with sopranos at the back of the church constantly singing on a single absolutely steady note while the body of the choir were singing the text in a Tallis-like style. Such an astonishing mix of voices.
The third ‘take’ was Panufnik’s wonderful development of the Kyrie in Byrd’s five-part mass, sung beautifully with lovely waves of sound.
Once again, thank you Paragon.
Antony Corfe