‘Elite Choir Races Ahead of Rivals’ - 6.12.02

[Review: St Luke’s Church, London] Barry Millington: 6 December 2002, Evening Standard

Lit by candles held in medieval French candelabra and dressed in purple cassocks, the newly formed choir Tenebrae made a striking impression. Their programme interwove plainsong, traditional and modern, with a penchant for the atmospheric and the spiritual. Their patronage extends to the glamorous world of Formula One racing is cleverly marketed. But why not? There is a demand for chant, ritual and purpureal solemnity these days and Tenebrae have found a niche.

They also happen to be a crack vocal ensemble. With singers drawn form such choirs as King’s College, Cambridge, Westminster Abbey and Cathedral, and St. Paul’s Cathedral, this is a truly elite choir, and the Ave Verum by Colin Mawby at the start of the programme was electrifying. Sung from a few feet behind those of us at the back, the climaxes were enough to lift us out of our pew. The choir makes a feature of processing and choreographed regrouping appropriate to each piece. Thus much of the plainsong was done on the hoof, while Howells’ exquisite ‘A Spotless Rose’ and Naylor’s declamatory ‘Vox Dicentis’ were delivered from different areas of the church.

‘The Dream of Herod’, by the choir’s dynamic director, Nigel Short, was given a theatrical delivery with members of the choir spatially separated. The piece, which explores the torment of King Herod (sung strongly by Colin Campbell), combines modern and archaic musical language – in that sense emblematic of the choir’s general approach to repertoire. If an African Crib Carol and Short’s own arrangement of ‘Away in a Manger’ (with much oohing, aahing and close harmony indebted to his time with the King’s Singers) bordered on the saccharine, there was much else to enjoy in a skilfully devised programme. This is a choir of which we will be hearing a lot more!