The Tallis Scholars at the BBC Proms

23 July 2008
Financial Times
Richard Fairman

Forget the tumbler of whisky before bed. There is no better preparation for a good night's sleep than to take in one of the late night Proms, drinking in some timeless score in the hushed ambience of a half-filled hall, as the hands of the clock tick steadily towards midnight.

For most people in the audience it is probably the second concert of the evening. Tuesday's line-up offered a typically contrasted pair of events: first a standard orchestral programme featuring the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra under Roger Norrington and then a plunge into the distant past with unaccompanied choral music from the Tallis Scholars.

For the late-night Prom two late 15th-century masses were performed on either side of the popular song that had inspired them. It was interesting to compare how Obrecht and Josquin des Prez each used the chanson "Malheur me bat" for his own purposes and the Tallis Scholars under conductor Peter Phillips sang these slow-moving, luminous masses with impeccable blend and balance. Did anybody care that the last tube had just gone half way through the "Benedictus"? This is music where time stands still.

 

Read the full review here.