Playing
Elizabeth’s Tune is the title
of a television programme which The Tallis Scholars made
for the BBC. The programme explores the life and music
of William Byrd: a Catholic composer in service to a Protestant
Queen. The equivalent DVD has a playing time of over 3
hours and includes filmed performances by The Tallis Scholars,
a documentary on the composer and over 50 minutes of bonus
audio tracks, so that with this CD you know you are only
getting highlights. The filmed performances were performed
in the beautiful surroundings of Tewkesbury Abbey and recorded
in genuine surround sound, but the DVD was not especially
highly rated by Robert Hugill on these pages (see review).
The stereo CD reviewed here is also available on an SACD
Hybrid.
The
Tallis Scholars have of course recorded the three Byrd
Masses before, on Gimell CDGIM 345.
While
the contradiction in religions between composer and patron
might seem intractable, the political and religious situation
in Byrd’s time was in fact more settled than in that of his
teacher, Thomas Tallis. While Byrd had little option but
to conform to the simpler style and English texts required
by the Protestant Church, he still managed to maintain his
personal voice in works which can be held up as equal in
complexity to some of his Catholic pieces.
This
disc in many ways sums up the range Byrd was able to produce
in his choral works. The deepest pathos of the motet Tristitia
et anxietas shows an introverted sublimation of the emotions Byrd might
have wished to express, but which would have been unacceptable
to his audiences. The first track, Vigilate, incorporates
freer, madrigal-style gestures. Byrd’s stricter Protestant
style appears in the more chordal Prevent us, O Lord and O
Lord, make thy Servant Elizabeth, which nonetheless possess
passages of great beauty.
Elizabeth
I’s favourite composer took his music for religious services
very seriously indeed, and the Magnificat is an elaborate
setting whose polyphony goes into eight parts at times. The Mass
for 4 Voices was a risky undertaking, the composer single-handedly
keeping alive a tradition which had already been closed to
composers for some time. If you needed any convincing that
this disc is for you, try the Sanctus and Benedictus from
this Mass and ask yourself afterwards if you really
want to live without it. The deceptive simplicity of the Ave
verum corpus concludes an excellent programme of the
music of William Byrd, representing the troubled times that
produced some of the most intimate and passionate sacred
music ever written.
It
almost goes without saying that The Tallis Scholars produce
sublime and moving performances in a beautifully balanced
recording. The only comparison I have to hand is the Nimbus
recording with the Christ Church Cathedral Choir under Stephen
Darlington. This uses boys’ voices rather than the female
sopranos of the Scholars and, while perfectly acceptable,
doesn’t quite hit the eloquent expressiveness of these new
performances. The Tallis Scholars have greater timbre and
variety at their disposal, and as a result draw the listener
more into the inner line and phrasing of the music. The only
problem with this CD is that, having heard it, one immediately
wants the DVD in order to be able to hear the other two Masses.
Dominy Clements
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Crotchet
The Tallis
Scholars/Peter Phillips 
