Warm your hearts this autumn with the first concert of Allegri Ensemble’s 2015 Season, “Mass & Motets”, a performance of glorious a cappella choral music in the rich acoustic of Hobart’s St Mary’s Cathedral on Saturday May 16th at 8:00 pm. Musical Director Andrew Bainbridge, Organist of St Mary’s Cathedral and Assistant Chorusmaster of the TSO Chorus, formed Allegri Ensemble in 2010, a handpicked, tightly-knit group of committed singers drawn from many choirs, some of whom are soloists in their own right.
“Mass & Motets” features luminous music from the two shining periods of English choral music, represented by Thomas Tallis (c.1505–1585) and Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958). Both long-lived composers were organists and teachers closely associated with the English church. Vaughan William’s Mass in G Minor (1921) for unaccompanied double choir and soloists, exudes his passion for the English countryside. His use of modal harmony harks back to the 16th century English liturgical tradition of composers like Tallis. Allegri Ensemble will perform the Vaughan Williams Mass interspersed with motets by Tallis.
Serving at the Chapel Royal under four successive monarchs, Tallis had to adapt his music to meet the demands of the political and religious upheaval of the Reformation. Sancte Deus is an early work from Henry VIII’s reign whereas Verily, Verily I say unto you comes from the extreme Protestant period of Edward VI during which time the Latin rite was banned in England. Tallis’s Third mode melody is a tune from vernacular psalm settings collected in 1567 for the first Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury. Vaughan Williams came across this melody while editing the English hymnal and later used it as the basis for his popular work for strings, Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis.
Allegri Ensemble will also sing four Latin motets by Tallis from the Cantiones Sacrae (1575), dedicated to Elizabeth I: Te Lucis Ante Terminum, O Sacrum Convivium, Salvator Mundi I and O Nata Lux de Lumine.
Don’t miss “Mass & Motets” performed once only by the Allegri Ensemble at St Mary’s Cathedral, Hobart, on Saturday 16th May at 8:00 pm. Tickets $35; $26 concession from Centertainment: 53 Elizabeth Mall, Hobart, ph 6234 5998, www.centertainment.com.au
Caroline Miller, Allegri Ensemble www.allegriensemble.com
