San Francisco Classical Voice

The Tallis Scholars showed off their heavenly harmonies on Saturday in a performance that was rich in choral artistry, if a bit short on pizzazz. In the second of two concerts at the First Congregational Church in Berkeley, director Peter Phillips and his singers presented sacred works by Renaissance composers William Byrd, Robert White, and Alfonso Ferrabosco the Elder. Pitch perfect and carefully shaped, each phrase rang with the celebrated clarity that has earned the ensemble numerous awards.

But a truly successful live performance should offer something you can't get from a recording: a uniquely bracing energy that flows between performer and audience. Sitting only a stone's throw from the singers, I saw little evidence that they still get a charge out of looking their audience in the eye. Even in the more intense selections, the Tallis Scholars never really broke through a screen of choir-loft remoteness.

The singers' blasé stage presence certainly made the evening less riveting (one bass sang looking down into his music most of the time), but another problem may have been the rather uniform and gloomy program. Unlike the selections they had performed the night before, a more chronologically broad lineup that spanned the 15th and 16th centuries and featured pieces by Josquin Desprez, Nicholas Gombert, and Orlando de Lassus, Saturday's set was only subtly differentiated in musical style and affect. Full of tears, tribulation, and humble wonder, the musical selections showed a rather sober--an almost exhaustingly consonant--side of late 16th century English choral music. (Phillips himself made reference to this when the group bounced through Byrd's undeniably vivacious Vigilate as an encore.)

Beginning with a solid rendition of White's motet Appropinquet deprecatio mea ("Let my complaint come [before thee, O Lord]"), the concert continued with Byrd's lovely, but arguably tame, Mass for five voices . In an unusual move, Phillips purposely allowed applause after the Gloria, Credo, and Sanctus, apparently to reflect the natural liturgical separation of these parts. Hesitant clapping does not adequately replace liturgical momentum, however. The effect was simply awkward and distracting. Still, the Sanctus and Agnus dei were sung to exquisite effect, with the inner voices coming through the polyphonic texture like light through stained glass.

The more interesting second half opened with Ferrabosco's Lamentations I for Holy Week, followed by his motet Mirabile mysterium ("A wonderful mystery"). The Lamentations sparkled with the crunchy dissonances and cross-relations that adorn so much of the English early-music repertoire.

In another highlight, Byrd's famous motet Plorans ploravit ("Mine eye shall weep")-an implied denunciation of the persecution of Catholics in England-the ensemble achieved some of its most glorious moments of choral blend and balance, culminating in a radiant, transparent pianissimo.

Paired with Plorans ploravit, Byrd's Tribulatio proxima est ("Tribulation cometh nigh") represents the cry of the oppressed for defense and redemption. Here, the singing was bold but lacked the earnestness that the piece demands.

The program closed with White's Manus tuae fecerunt me ("Thy hands have made me"), a colorful piece with contrasting sections of trios and quartets that displayed the glories of the individual voices and vocal sections. The singers on the inner parts deserved the greatest praise.

Altos Caroline Trevor and Patrick Craig made an outstanding team, her pleasing warmth mixing perfectly with his sweet, bright timbre. The divided tenor parts were executed with ease and grace by Nicholas Todd, Julian Podger, Philip Cave, and Toby Watkin. The basses (Donald Greig and Francis Steele) were the least strong. They could not always provide the solid, resonant foundation that this music requires, especially as a balance to the treble-heavy writing. Though singing with an uncanny blend and a resplendent tone, Sopranos Tessa Bonner and Sally Dunkley often overshadowed the rest of the group. Their soaring lines drew attention through volume rather than an exuberance that might have energized the rest of the ensemble and the performance.

(Kristi Brown received her Ph.D. in musicology from the University of California, Berkeley. She is currently a Contributing Editor for the Music section of the Encyclopedia Britannica Internet Guide. She spends the rest of her time lecturing about music, singing, and playing with her two children, Caterina and Stefano.)

©2000 Kristi Brown, all rights reserved