SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

 

Morales: Gaude et laetare

Exalta est sancta Dei genitrix

Emendemus in melius

Regina caeli

Guerrero: Missa surge propera

Regina caeli laetare

 

One of the most distinctive colours of Jonathan Mills’s tenure as EIF Director has been his Greyfriars series. Every year the historic Kirk has been used as a focus for world-class chamber groups to explore a particular theme. This year, as part of Oceans Apart, they are showcasing how European music influenced that of the New World. Later concerts will include South American Baroque, now much better known to us, but this evening featured the music of the Spanish conquerors. While there may not have been an explicit link to the Americas in this programme, who cares when you get the chance to hear such glorious music so well sung?

 

The Tallis Scholars have a purity of vocal line that is the envy of many equally well known groups. Their recordings for Gimell often take place in Merton College Chapel, Oxford, where Peter Phillips is Director of Music, and hearing them in an acoustically similar venue (as opposed to a modern concert hall) helps to bring alive the spirituality of their material. Cleanliness and blend are the hallmarks of their sound. Such a communal spirit would have pleased the composer whose chief objective was to glorify their creator rather than the singer. Their ethereal vocal lines cascaded in upon one another creating something very magical, most impressively in the final motet, Guerrero’s Regina caeli laetare where the choir breaks into two groups and passes the complementary lines off against one another. This was an unusually moving and uplifting experience.

 

The Edinburgh International Festival runs until Sunday 5^th September in venues across the city. For full details and to book tickets go to www.eif.co.uk.

 

Simon Thompson