'Sacred Delights at the Newbury Spring Festival' - 14.05.03

[Review: Douai Abbey] 14 May 2003, Newbury Spring Festival

Douai Abbey provided the perfect setting for the 22 singers of Tenebrae under their founder and director Nigel Short, in a well-chosen programme including music from all ages.

Short’s own work The Dream of Herod was the main work in the first half. kind Herod’s trials and fear of subversion by an infant child are evoked by a semi-dramatised setting, with Herod at the centre and other characters appearing from different corners of the church. Powerful and yet intimate, this will surely become a standard piece for the best choirs.

Three works by Tavener were featured; the established Song for Athene with its signature discords was delivered with style and conviction. Mother and Child is a Tenebrae commission written in 2003; it was powerful and compelling having gentle chorales alternating with violent outbursts from singers and organ, and at its climax, a Hindu Temple gong.

Allegri’s Miserere was sung by three separate groups around the church, almost as the composer intended when he created it for St Peter’s in Rome where it has been performed every Holy Week for 350 years. Tenebrae uses lady sopranos, which adds a powerful intensity not achieved with boy trebles. The delights did not stop there. Britten’s Hymn to St Cecilia and Holst’s Lord who has made us were as enjoyable as the shorter works from the 16th century and earlier.

Tenebrae performs with candlelight and explores acoustics by movement around the church. Although the movement was sometimes a little distracting, this was still a lovely event. No wonder the concert was sold out weeks in advance.