There was more of it this year than last, but in the end we didn’t get to much. As last year, my youngest was involved in a Festival concert, this time ‘Down the Rabbit Hole’, a piece inspired by Alice in Wonderland which was performed in Bath Abbey on the opening night. The children performed with enthusiasm and it was an enjoyable occasion though like a lot of music written for children now the vocal range was a bit low.
Later in the Festival I returned to the Abbey to hear Stile Antico. Disclaimer: I sing for a member of this choir, and I’d been waiting eagerly for them to come to these parts (they did sing at the Wiltshire Music Centre a while back). Their programme was English Tudor church music, both Catholic and Protestant, with most of Byrd’s 5-part mass linking the rest together. The full 12 singers were used in some pieces, including their calling card O Praise the Lord by Tallis, and different combinations of singers were used in different pieces. At one point the sopranos disappeared to sing plainchant interludes in a responsory from the very eastern end of the Abbey.
Over the course of the evening one got to know the sound of the individual voices. There’s a pair of identical twin sopranos, whose voices I could tell apart though I could not do the same for their faces. This is not to say that the voices did not blend together well. The men’s voices have matured since I bought their first recording a decade ago. I also particularly appreciated the purely tuned intervals without the equal-temperament compromise.
The ensemble is noted for performing unconducted, and so their demeanour is rather different from usual choral performance, with the singers glancing frequently across at one another to read body language. I suspect that some final consonants may be been delegated to particular singers rather than being sung by everyone!
It was a superb concert and they have Bath in their pocket. It didn’t quite sell out but I’m sure they will when they return, as I hope they will. The highlight for me was the melancholy of Byrd’s Civitas sancti tui.