Tallis Scholars Archives - charleshutchpress

March 5, 2025March 6, 2025

Welcome to Heaven & Hell as York Early Music Festival announces 2025 theme and international artists for July 4 to 11 event

Festival commission: BBC New Generation artist and mezzo soprano Helen Charlston will perform new Anna Disley-Simpson work with theorbo player Toby Carr in In Heaven & Hell…Yours To Choose on July 9 at Merchant Adventurers’ Hall, York, at 6.30pm. Picture: Julien Gazeau

HEAVEN & Hell will be the theme of the 2025 York Early Music Festival, a summer fiesta of 19 concerts in eight days featuring international artists from July 4 to 11.

The Sixteen, the Tallis Scholars and Academy of Ancient Music will be taking part, as will French orchestral ensemble Le Consort, led by rising-star violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte, in their York debut with an “exceptional rendition of exceptional of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons – but not quite as you know it”.

The festival will intertwine three very different themes: firstly, the music of Renaissance composer Orlando Gibbons, opening with viol consort Fretwork (Friday, July 4); secondly, the genius of the Baroque, focusing on Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (Sunday, July 6).

Thirdly, the strand that lends itself to the 2025 title: a reflection on Man’s fall from grace – from Heaven to Hell – in biblical times with YEMF artistic advisor and BBC New Generation artist Helen Charlston and her fellow Gramophone Award-winner, lutenist and theorbo player Toby Carr (Wednesday, July 9) in the medieval Guildhall of the Merchant Adventurers’ Hall.

Fretwork: Viol consort will open York Early Music Festival with Renaissance music of Orlando Gibbons in My Days: Songs and Fantasias with mezzo soprano Helen Charlston on July 4 at 7.30pm at Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York

The Tallis Scholars (Saturday, July 5) and The Sixteen (Monday, July 7) will share their programmes in the glorious surroundings of York Minster; the Spanish ensemble Cantoria (Tuesday, July 8) will present a sizzling array of ensaladas and villancicos in their A La Fiesta programme and Swiss- based medievalists Sollazzo (Thursday, July 10) will return to York for the first time since winning a prestigious Diapason d’Or award.

The festival will finish with a flourish in the company of the Academy of Ancient Music and their leader, violinist Bojan Čičić (Friday, July 11) in a celebration of Bach’s violin concertos.

York Early Music Festival continues to support emerging musicians with invitations to two 2024 York Early Music Festival Young Artists Competition winners, Ayres Extemporae and Ensemble Bastion.

Once again, the festival will showcase a variety of York’s beautiful historic buildings, such as the Minster, the medieval Merchant Adventurers’ Hall and the intriguing hidden architectural gem Bedern Hall.

The Sixteen: Returning to York Minster to present Angel Of Peace on July 7 at 7.30pm

In an open call for the York Early Music Festival Special Commission, NCEM Young Composers Award alumni were invited to respond to the Heaven & Hell theme by writing a piece to be performed by Charlston and Carr as part of their In Heaven & Hell…Yours To Choose programme featuring Purcell, Strozzi, Monteverdi, Charpentier and Humfrey works on July 9.

Anna Disley-Simpson has been awarded the commission from a competitive field of 24 applications for her piece Heaven Or Hell, for which she will collaborate with librettist Olivia Bell, drawing inspiration from Kurt Weill. Expect her composition to be “deliberately subversive and unexpected in several ways,” Anna promises.

Supported by the Hinrichsen Foundation and an anonymous donor, Anna will receive a commission fee of £2,000, plus travel and accommodation expenses within the United Kingdom to attend a workshop with the musicians in London and the York premiere.

Looking forward to the July event, festival director Dr Delma Tomlin says: “We are thrilled to welcome friends old and new to what promises to be a fantastic celebration of music from an outstanding array of artists.

Le Consort: French orchestral ensemble will make York Early Music Festival debut on July 6, performing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons at Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York, at 7.30pm

“Celebrating over 500 years of music from across Europe, we are particularly delighted to be able to welcome ensembles from France, Switzerland, Poland, Spain and the Netherlands to our wonderful city. We look forward to welcoming visitors and residents alike to eight wonderful days of music-making.”

The full programme and booking details can be found at ncem.co.uk/whats-on/yemf/. Bookings also can be made on 01904 658338, via boxoffice@ncem.co.uk and in person at the NCEM, Margaret’s Church, Walmgate, York.

York Early Music Festival: the back story

ESTABLISHED in 1977, the festival is designed to celebrate York’s myriad of medieval churches, guildhalls and historic houses through historically informed music-making of the highest international standard.

The annual event is the “jewel in the crown” of the National Centre for Early Music’s annual programme, enjoyed by York residents and visitors from all over the UK and across the world.

The Tallis Scholars: Performing Glorious Creatures programme at York Minster on July 5 at 7.30pm. Picture: Hugo Glendinning

June 12, 2023June 12, 2023

REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on The Ministers Of Pastime and Tallis Scholars

Beverley & East Riding Early Music Festival: The Ministers Of Pastime/Tallis Scholars, St Mary’s Church, Beverley, May 27 & Beverley Minster, May 28

IT is a feather in our region’s cap when a foreign ensemble agrees to make its British debut here. The latest to be lured are The Ministers Of Pastime, headlining at the ever-charming Beverley Early Music Festival.

A group of nine players from Catalonia, they take their name from an observation by a French ambassador at the court of Henry VIII.

But Vienna was their focus here, specifically the Italian-inspired music that thrived there in the first half of the 17th century. Three kapellmeisters (directors of music) at the Viennese court pioneered the development of the stylus phantasticus. The earliest of them was Giovanni Valentini, a Venetian who had migrated to Austria in 1614, joining the court of Archduke Ferdinand in Graz.

With the latter’s election as Holy Roman Emperor, he moved to Vienna, where he promulgated this new Venetian and northern Italian operatic style after becoming Hofkapellmeister in 1626.

Although it is based around daring harmonic and rhythmic devices that are marked by sudden and often unprepared changes, it is equally important as a style of performance that is dramatic, expressive and, indeed, operatic, although it is essentially instrumental and not vocal.

After Valentini’s death, his lead was taken up in turn by Antonio Bertali, a native of Verona, and then by an Austrian, Johann Schmelzer (who may have taught Biber).

The programme at St Mary’s was framed by Schmelzer sonatas, with the two Italians sandwiched between. It emerged that all three composers laid much stress on the lead violin and Ignacio Ramal’s virtuosity was tailor-made for the role, as he and his co-violinist, Sara Balasch, swayed from the knees with an abandon that was reflected in their playing.

Right from the start there was a surprising amount of syncopation, but the ensemble never wavered, with forthright accents tautly synchronised. A second Valentini sonata, nicknamed “Enharmonica”, was more lyrical, but in all three of his works here there was always strong momentum. A similar bonhomie coloured a chaconne and two sonatas by Bertali, the latter two linked by an eloquent archlute solo.

Schmelzer clearly learnt from the Italians. His rhapsodic Sonata Jucunda, packed with volatile time-changes, featured a powerful central unison followed by a drone and some gypsy-style dancing – all the sunny temperament of the Mediterranean in fact.

The appearance of the Tallis Scholars in a packed Beverley Minster not only commemorated the 400th anniversary of the death of William Byrd but also celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Scholars themselves, still conducted by Peter Phillips who founded them during his 20^th year.

Six motets by Byrd himself were heard alongside four by Tallis and one by Sheppard, both of whom were in full flower when Byrd was born and were effectively his mentors. A setting of the same text, O Salutaris Hostia, showed Tallis writing in five parts with wonderful clarity, his inner voices particularly transparent, whereas the younger Byrd demonstrated his confidence by changing harmonies more wildly and finding satisfying resolution to dissonance.

The centrepiece of the evening was the only piece sung in English, indeed probably the longest that Tallis wrote for the Anglican service, his Te Deum ‘for means’, which uses words from the 1549 psalter. The ensemble revelled in its antiphonal techniques so that they positively sparkled.

It was followed by Byrd’s equally inspirational Quomodo Cantabimus? in eight parts, effectively a lament for the exile of Catholicism based on Psalm 137. Sheppard’s three-section Jesu Salvator Saeculi Redemptis, with its plainsong intros, spare harmonies and imaginative Amen, completed this succulent demonstration of the power of these three great composers.

There was plenty of treasure still in store: skilfully sustained lines in Tallis’s Miserere Nostri, a magical ending to Byrd’s Miserere Mei and stunning manipulation of textures and polyphony in the final piece, Byrd’s masterly Tribue Domine. The ‘false relation’ (deliberate dissonance) at the end of Tallis’s hymn O Nata Lux, given as an encore, was delightfully attenuated, yet another example of Phillips’s artistry with this unique group.

Review by Martin Dreyer

July 2, 2022

More Things To Do in York and beyond on light nights as summer signals outdoor season. List No. 89, courtesy of The Press

*York Light Opera Company’s performers and production team for A Night With The Light*

FROM open-air films to the Proms, Early Music festival connections to Nordic sunshine, Charles Hutchinson’s summer season is in full bloom.

York Light Opera Company in A Night With The Light, Friargate Theatre, Friargate, York, today at 2.30pm and 7.30pm

UNDER the direction of Jonny Holbek and musical direction of Martin Lay, York Light presents a feel-good programme of powerful, funny, emotive and irreverent numbers from favourite musicals and new ones too.

Look forward to songs from Hamilton, Waitress, Wicked, Chicago, Chess, Avenue Q, The Phantom Of The Opera, Les Misérables, The Sound Of Music and plenty more. “Come join us as we have Magic To Do!” say Jonny and Martin. Box office: 01904 655317 or ridinglights.org/a-night-with-the-light/.

*West Side Story: One of the films to be shown at Picturehouse Outdoor Cinema in York Museum Gardens*

Films under the stars: Picturehouse Outdoor Cinema, York Museum Gardens, York, tonight and tomorrow; August 5 to 7, 7.30pm

PICTUREHOUSE, owners of City Screen, York, present two weekends of open-air cinema with a summer vibe.

Tonight’s Grease (Sing-A-Long) (PG) will be followed by tomorrow’s 70th anniversary celebration of Singin’ In The Rain (U).

Next month’s trio of films opens with a 40th anniversary screening of Blade Runner (15) on August 5; next comes Steven Spielberg’s 2021 re-make of West Side Story (12A) on August 6; last up, Disney’s Encanto (Sing-A-Long) (U) on August 7. Box office: picturehouses.com/outdoor-cinema/venue/york-museum-gardens.

*Off to the coast: a-ha head for Scarborough Open Air Theatre tomorrow*

The sun always shines on…a-ha, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, tomorrow, gates, 6pm

NORWEGIAN synth-pop trio a-ha head to the Yorkshire coast on their 2022 World Tour of Europe, the United States and South America, 40 years since forming in Oslo.

Vocalist Morten Harket, guitarist Pal Waaktaar-Savoy and keyboardist Magne Furuholmen will be releasing a new album in October, True North, their first collection of new songs since 2015’s I, recorded in two days 25km inside the Arctic Circle.

Will they preview new songs alongside the familiar Take On Me, The Sun Always Shines On TV, Hunting High And Low and Stay On These Roads? Find out on Sunday. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.

*Christina Bianco’s LV and Ian Kelsey’s Ray Say in The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice at York Theatre Royal*

Play of the week: Glass Half Full Productions in The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice, Monday to Saturday, 7.30pm; 2pm, Thursday; 2.30pm, Saturday

YORK actor Ian Kelsey returns to his home city to play viperous talent-spotting agent Ray Say in his Theatre Royal debut in a new tour of Jim Cartwright’s bittersweet comedy-drama, directed by Bronagh Lagan.

Coronation Street star Shobna Gulati plays louche, greedy, loud mother Mari Hoff and American actress and YouTube sensation Christina Bianco, her daughter LV, the recluse with the hidden singing talent for impersonating Judy Garland, Shirley Bassey et al. Can Ray draw her out of her shell and with what consequences? Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

*The Sixteen: Returning to York Minster for York Early Music Festival* *2022*

Festival of the week: York Early Music Festival 2022, July 8 to 16

YORK Early Music Festival returns to a full-scale live programme for the first time since 2019 under the theme of connections.

“Concerts are linked together through a maze of interconnecting composers,” says festival administrative director Delma Tomlin. “We’re delighted to be able to shine a light on the many connections that hold us together in the past and into the future.”

At the heart of the 2022 festival will be three 7.30pm concerts in York Minster by The Sixteen (July 9, the Nave); The Tallis Scholars (July 11, Chapter House) and the Gabrieli Consort & Players (July 13, the Nave). For the full programme and tickets, head to: ncem.co.uk.

*Skylights: Playing their biggest gig yet at Leeds O2 Academy*

York gig of the week in Leeds: Skylights, Leeds O2 Academy, July 9, doors, 7pm

YORK indie-rockers Skylights play “the biggest gig of our lives” next weekend up the road in Leeds, where previously they have sold out Leeds University and The Wardrobe and performed at Leeds United’s centenary celebrations in Millennium Square in October 2019.

Four Acomb lads in the 30s, singer Rob Scarisbrick, guitarist Turnbull Smith, drummer Myles Soley and bassist Jonny Scarisbrick, will perform to 2,300 fans in celebration of their debut album, What You Are, reaching number 34 in the charts in May. Box office: academymusicgroup.com.

*Natasha Agarwal: Soprano soloist at York Proms*

Picnic party of the week: York Proms, York Museum Gardens, York, July 10, gates, 4pm

MUSICAL director Ben Crick conducts the 22-piece Yorkshire Festival Orchestra in next weekend’s performance of classical and film pieces, a special Platinum Jubilee section in the second half and a rousing Proms finale.

Soloists will be soprano and dancer Natasha Agarwal, who performed in Opera North’s Carmen, and bass-baritone John Anthony Cunningham, who has chalked up principal roles with English National Opera, Opera North and the Royal Opera House.

York Proms founder Rebecca Newman’s special appearance includes a tribute to her husband and co-founder, Jonathan Fewtrell, who died suddenly in 2020. The Fireworkers provide a firework finishing flourish. Box office: 01904 555670 or yorkproms.com/tickets.

*Calling Planet Earth: Elegy to the Eighties at York Barbican*

New Romantic nostalgia in the air: Calling Planet Earth, York Barbican, January 21 2023, 8pm

THIS New Romantic Symphony takes a journey through the electrifying Eighties’ songs of Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, The Human League, Ultravox, Tears For Fears, Depeche Mode, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, Japan, ABC and Soft Cell.

Calling Planet Earth combines a live band with symphonic arrangements and vocals in a show designed to “simply define a decade”. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk or ticketmaster.co.uk.