The highlights of this wonderful programme of English music are two pieces for multiple choirs positioned around the church, creating the ultimate surround sound experience. Spem in Alium and Invocations and Last Word were composed over four hundred years apart but are equally awe inspiring.
A performance of Tallis’s masterpiece, Spem in alium, is always a special occasion. This monumental choral achievement is rightly regarded as one of the treasures of Elizabethan English music. It is scored for 40 individual parts, divided into eight choirs. As each part enters in turn, the audience is gradually drawn into a magical, shimmering sequence of constantly shifting tone colours which can only be fully appreciated in live performance.
The second equally immersive piece is for four choirs, Tavener’s Invocations and Last Word. Commissioned by the Northern Voices Choral Festival in Canada in 2005, Tavener’s rare ability to make his music accessible to all is exemplified in this moving piece.
As a complete contrast, cellist Adrian Bradbury will play two pieces for solo cello, Britten’s Suite No 1 and Tavener’s Threnos, before joining Brighton Festival Chorus and Brighton Festival Youth Choir in another evocative piece by Tavener, Syvati. Like so much of Tavener’s later work this poignant choral work is derived from the chanting of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
The programme also includes:Holst’s Ave Maria, and pieces by Tomkins and Weelkes both entitled When David heard.