PETER PHILLIPS CONDUCTS
TALLIS VOCALIS

Oct 21 (Sat) 2017 | 8pm | St. Andrew’s Church

Peter Phillips, founder of the world’s leading Renaissance music ensemble The Tallis Scholars, conducts Tallis Vocalis in a concert mixing Renaissance and contemporary music on Saturday 21st October 2017, 8pm at St. Andrew’s Church, Tsim Sha Tsui. The concert features works by Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, Arvo Pärt and Eric Whitacre.

Arvo Pärt’s sparse and horizontal writing reflects the composer’s deep spirituality. The music’s eloquence lies in the shifting harmonies that create alternating moments of tension and relaxation. In particular, Nunc dimittis presents the composer’s characteristic, bell-like ‘tintinnabuli’ style.

The devout and almost medieval quality of Pärt’s music means that it combines well with genuinely early works, and in this concert it is paired with pieces by Byrd and Tallis, presenting some fine examples of the intricacy of these renaissance composers’ writing. Notably, in Byrd’s eight-voice motet Ad Dominum cum tribularer, long and distinctive thematic subjects pass among the eight voices in tight interlock, resulting in a spellbindingly dense texture.

To complete the programme, Whitacre’s shimmering Sainte-Chapelle, written in 2013 for the 40th anniversary of The Tallis Scholars, is inspired by a vision of stained glass windows in a 13th-century gothic chapel, and aptly completes this programme of spirituality and light.

Peter Phillips has dedicated his life’s work to Renaissance polyphony, having founded The Tallis Scholars in 1973 during his music studies at Oxford, and is the foremost expert of the genre worldwide. He has appeared with the ensemble in almost 2000 concerts and made over 60 discs. The Tallis Scholars have sought to bring contemporary relevance to the polyphony repertoire, and in 2015 released a recording of works by Arvo Pärt to mark the composer’s 80th year.