Singers put on ethereal performance - 8.09.06

[Review: Harrogate International Music Festival, St. Wiflrid’s Church, Harrogate] Paul Dyson, August 10, 2006

A mix of some of the country’s very best choral singers and the beautiful acoustic of St Wilfrid’s Church produced a concert stunning in vitrually every aspect of its production.
This candle-lit event, featuring a choir that had visited the festival in 2005, consisted almost exclusively of English music from the 16th, 17th and 20th centuries and French music from just the 20th century. Tenebrae is a 12-strong vocal ensemble drawn from several professional nationwide groups and had three singers from each of the four main voice-parts, the altos being male.

They performed a capella throughout and, more significantly, used the spaciousness of the building in varied and most imaginative ways, singing from vantage points that included the organ loft and Lady Chapel. Such were the effects produced that this writer, for one, could not be absolutely certain from which direction the source of the sound was being produced.
Following a Lassus motet, sung from the back of the nave, the choir used the Funeral Sentences of Croft and Purcell as a processional. They walked up the three aisles simultaneously as three SATB quartets performing with a precision that belied director Nigel Short’s pure economy of movement.
The blend of the voices produced at times an ethereal sound; a few performed as soloists of high quality, but merged together in an ensemble of great beauty.

Among the concert’s many hightlights was Tavener’s Funeral Ikos which demonstrated more precision – this time in the outstanding accuracy of a mere three voices singing in unison. In addition, the main group performed the chorus sections from different places in the building and with detailed attention to varying the approach to the dissonant climaxes.
The group changed its make-up from work to work: Durufle’s Quatre Motets on Gregorian Themes was sung by a group of eight while Quatre Prieres de Saint Francois d’Assise of Poulenc only required six male voices.
Performances of these pieces and other music by Poulenc as well as Debussy provided many contrasts and the eccentricities of the French approach to harmony and tonality were dealt with superbly. In fact, throughout the concert, the intonation was as perfect as it is possible to be.

Other highlights included Bennet’s moving madrigal Weep O Mine Eyes and a most delicate arrangement of Bobby Shaftoe, totally different from its usual raucous rendition. This latter piece came in a concluding group of British folksongs that began with My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose, performed so effectively that at least one Scottish member of the audience was reduced to tears.

The near-capacity audience will definitely be hoping to hear more ethereal performances from future visits by this outstanding ensemble.