Alchemy - An explosion of music old and new

Saturday, 5th July 2008 at Christ Church Spitalfields, London E1

This concert marked the second part of an exciting exchange between the Renaissance Singers and JanJoost’s Dutch choir, the Lelikoor, in the summer of 2008.

Each choir shared the music closest to its heart before joining together to celebrate some of the most magnificent pieces in the choral repertoire, including Thomas Tallis’s Spem in Alium, composed in 40 vocal parts.

Tomkins O God, the proud are risen (RS)

De la Rue Myn hert altyt heeft verlanghen (RS)

Parsons 1st Te Deum (RS)

Britten Chorale (on a French tune) (L)

Pärt Dopo la vittoria (L)

Mahler Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen

Martin Mass for double choir

Tallis Spem in Alium

Byrd’s Great Service

Sunday 18 May 2008 at The Grosvenor Chapel, Mayfair

with commentary by John Milsom

Throughout his long association with the Chapel Royal, William Byrd lived dangerously. The man whose now celebrated settings of the Latin Mass sustained the forbidden worship of the recusant Catholic underground also had the versatility and audacity to produce one of the brightest jewels in the crown of the new Anglican liturgy – the so-called “Great Service”.

The Renaissance Singers offer a rare opportunity to hear this kaleidoscopic suite of psalms and canticles for the major services of the Anglican Prayerbook in its entirety, ranging from the intricacy of its madrigal-like solo passages to the grandeur of music in up to ten voice parts. The programme will also include three massive anthems by Thomas Tomkins, a Chapel Royal composer of the following generation. These are some of the last and greatest of their genre before English music was engulfed by what Tomkins himself called the “sad and distracted times” of the English Civil War and Commonwealth.

Byrd The Great Service

Tomkins O sing unto the Lord; O God, the proud are risen against me;

O praise the Lord, all ye heathen

Music of the Sistine Chapel

Sunday, 12 October 2008 at Temple Church, London EC4
The Renaissance Singers conducted by JanJoost van Elburg
with guest soprano soloist Amy Haworth

For the first concert of the 2008-9 season  the Renaissance Singers presented a concert of large-scale and virtuosic music from the Sistine Chapel, including Allegri's Miserere, one of the most iconic pieces in the early choral repertoire. We were delighted to welcome our guest soloist Amy Haworth (Tallis Scholars) whose acrobatic embellishments in Allegri’s Miserere were absolutely stunning.

Palestrina Surge illuminare; Stabat mater à 8; O beata et benedicta à 5; Agnus Dei from the Missa Papae Marcelli; Magnificat à 8

Allegri  Miserere Mei
Josquin Ave Maria à 6
Lassus Hodie complete sunt
Victoria Salve Regina

Missa pro defunctis by Cristobal de Morales

Saturday, 24th October at The Church of Our Most Holy Redeemer, London EC1

The Renaissance Singers with guest conductor Ralph Allwood

In his own day, the 16th-century Spanish Cristóbal de Morales was known throughout Europe for his singing with the Papal choir and, later, as a composer almost exclusively of liturgical music. He wrote at least 21 masses (more than double the number of any of his contemporaries), and kept strictly to modal scale structures. For much of composing life, Phillip II was on the throne, and was responsible for much of his composition. His counterpoint is more straight-laced than that of his fellow-countryman Victoria, and in this programme, the movements of the sombre requiem will have a leavening effect on the more emotional laments. The Absalon story has been a powerful inspiration to so many composers, right up to the present day with Eric Whitacre. The death of a son or daughter is the most powerful of tragedies.

Alonso Lobo Versa est in luctum cithara mea (at the death of Philip II)

1. Introitus

Josquin des Prez Absalon, Fili mi

2. Kyrie

Thomas Tomkins When David heard that Absalon was slain

3. Graduale

Thomas Tallis Sancte Deus

Pierre de la Rue Absalon, Fili mi

4. Offertorium

Nicholas Gombert Lugebat David Absalon

5. Sanctus and Benedictus

Thomas Weelkes When David heard that Absalon was slain

6. Agnus Dei

Robert Ramsey Sleep, Fleshly Birth

Ambrosio Cotes (c1550-1603) Mortuus Est Philippus Rex