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heavenly harmonies | compline | live reviews | awards

Reviews of live performances

One of the glories of British musical life is the profusion of professional choirs that have transformed notions of how Renaissance and Baroque music could, and perhaps should, be sung. But the best of those ensembles – the Tallis Scholars, the Sixteen, the Monteverdi Choir – have mostly been knocking around for decades. It’s as if one particular generation has cornered the market in motets.

So the arrival of some new kids in the cloisters is exciting. Especially as the 12 twentysomething choristers of Stile Antico are not only talented but have fresh ideas about how 16th-century sacred music should be presented. They can’t help but sound what they are: former Oxbridge choral scholars, with all... that this implies. But they don’t have a conductor, and that changes everything.

First, they work like chamber musicians: watching each other carefully, achieving cohesion through interaction. Secondly, their interpretations, especially of Byrd’s great multisectional motets, where pacing and mood must be so carefully varied, are done with the conviction and unanimity that comes when an ensemble arrives at its own conclusions, rather than merely bowing to a maestro’s whims. And thirdly, the absence of the conductor throws the audience’s attention on to the singers, who respond by lifting their heads from their copies and projecting straight at their listeners. That makes a big difference to communication.

This programme mingled Byrd’s anguished polyphony – the great motets of lament that seem to have carried a covert message for the persecuted Catholics of Elizabethan England – with the hymns that Tallis supplied for Archbishop Parker’s psalter, including the celebrated Canon and the tune that inspired Vaughan Williams’s Tallis Fantasia. It was an ingenious mixture; the artful simplicity of the latter contrasted with the majestic complexity of the former. (The Times, June 2007)

A remarkably well-drilled ensemble which is sure-footed in harmonic changes... Their encore - Byrd's Miserere Mihi - was evidence of their fondness for freedom of interpretation and recognition of the superb blend in the upper voices and clarity of diction. Stile Antico sing with conviction, their discipline is exemplary and they deliver a unique warmth of tone. (Warwick Today, March 2007)

The first Saturday concert was in the old Parish Church of St Nicholas, and started with Stile Antico, one of the highlights of last year’s Early Music Network International Young Artists Competition and the well-deserved winner of the Audience Prize and the recipients of a rave review from me. And they will get another one this time. The 13 unaccompanied singers, standing in a shallow arc with vocal groups intermixed, produce a superb consort sound, with no single voice dominating and with each (including, notably, the sopranos) having voices that project without harshness. They have an excellent ability to control dynamics, producing exquisite cadences - and it is good to hear a choir that can sing quietly whilst retaining security of tone and intonation. And they manage all this without a conductor - indeed, in my view, the lack of a conductor is one of the reasons for their undoubted musical success... (Early Music Review, November 2006)

On Saturday the painted angels in Merton Chapel, old when early music was new, looked down on the next in line. Stile Antico moves effortlessly into the first rank... a serious group who know whereof they sing and are confident enough to perform without a conductor. Watching them, I was struck by their intense shared concentration. No, this level of achievement isn't effortless. Their commitment to musical education is well-known. They've given three-hour workshops to sixth formers from local schools based on the work for Saturday's concert. So some lucky youngsters have learnt a lot, because the music isn't easy and Stile Antico don't dumb down.

The programme centred on Monteverdi's Missa in Illo Tempore, part of the famous job application of 1610 which also included the great Vespers, interspersed with motets by Palestrina and Gabrieli... Dedicated musicianship by the singers and judicious word-painting by the composers made every item telling, whether the slow melancholy of the Babylonian exile, the joy of the Assumption, the lingering contemplation of the pulchritude of the Bride of Christ or the prayerful invocation of the Agnus Dei. Alphas all round... Stile Antico has a great future. (Oxford Times, October 2006)

Fortunately, justice was done with the award from the 'Friends of York Early Music', who formed a sizeable part of the capacity audience. Measured by the degree of applause, Stile Antico ... had impressed more than any other entry... the performances of Lassus and Byrd having wonderful clarity with perfectly focused and ideally balanced voices. With impeccable diction and intonation they richly merit a place on our concert circuit. (Early Music Today, August 2005)

Their programme 'Man, dreame no more’, featured works by Martin Peerson, Lassus, Morales and Byrd. One very distinctive feature of this group was that there was no clear director... The resulting reliance on interaction between the singers produced some outstanding consort singing, both in terms of timing and shading, but also in some very well matched voices and a clear, constant tone. There was a refreshing lack of vocal mannerism amongst the singers, and no single voice ever dominated... They demonstrated good vocal colouring in Lassus’s Tre volte haveva and impressive textural contrasts in Byrd’s In resurrectione tua. Morales’s O Crux, ave, spes unica showed their ability to sing powerfully, without forcing the voices. (Early Music Review, August 2005)

Justice was seen to be done when the Friends of York Early Music declared their choice to be Stile Antico... They had produced wonderfully vivid singing in 16th and 17th-century sacred and secular music ... bringing a quality that within a short period could find these 13 singers rivalling the present choral hierarchy. (Yorkshire Post, July 2005)