The Tallis Scholars Perform at St. Bartholomew's Church, 3/26

The Tallis Scholars, Peter Phillips, conductor, will perform a concert of sacred Franco-Flemish choral works from the Renaissance at St. Bartholomew's Church on Friday, March 26 at 7:30 pm. This concert has been made possible by a generous grant from The Reed Foundation.

Hailed by The New York Times as "The rock stars of Renaissance vocal music," The Tallis Scholars were founded in the U.K. in 1973 by their director, Peter Phillips. Through their recordings and concert performances, they have established themselves as the leading exponents of Renaissance sacred music throughout the world. Peter Phillips has worked with the ensemble to create, through good tuning and blend, the purity and clarity of sound which he feels best serve the Renaissance repertoire, allowing every detail of the musical lines to be heard. It is the resulting beauty of sound for which the Tallis Scholars have become so widely renowned.

The Tallis Scholars' career highlights have included a tour of China in 1999, including two concerts in Beijing; and the privilege of performing in the Sistine Chapel in April 1994 to mark the final stage of the complete restoration of the Michelangelo frescoes, broadcast simultaneously on Italian and Japanese television. Much of The Tallis Scholars reputation for their pioneering work has come from their association with Gimell Records, set up by Peter Phillips and Steve Smith in 1980 solely to record the Scholars. In February 1994 Peter Phillips and the Tallis Scholars performed on the 400th anniversary of the death of Palestrina in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome, where Palestrina had trained as a choirboy and later worked as Maestro di Cappella. The concerts were recorded by Gimell and are available on both CD and DVD.

The concert at St. Bartholomew's will include works by Mouton, Gombert, Compère and Josquin. Conductor Peter Phillips describes the program: "The Tallis Scholars are about to embark on a minor crusade to promote the music of Jean Mouton. Although Mouton's name may bring to mind the Sunday roast before great music we believe he, like Josquin before him, deserves rehabilitation. We have chosen here a mass based on an amorous chanson by Loyset Compère, like Mouton a Franco-Flemish composer, which makes special use of some very low bass notes. The three Agnus Deis in particular are quite breathtaking in their dark sonorities. The second half of the programme complements the first: all Franco-Flemish, the two Ave Marias are particularly lovely; the Gombert Magnificat is a work we championed years ago in concert and on disc; and Josquin's motet Praeter rerum seriem is one of the masterpieces of the period, again scored with dark bass resonances."

Tickets at $100 (includes a $60 tax deductible contribution to the music program), $40 and $30 with a rate of $20 for students and senior citizens, may be purchased at the concert office at 325 Park Ave. between the hours of 9 am and 6 pm or by calling (212) 378-0248 or online at www.stbarts.org/music.asp. For tickets purchased online, there will be a $3 surcharge.

The Tallis Scholars' concert will take place at St. Bartholomew's Church at the corner of Park Avenue and 51st Street in Manhattan. Subway: 6 to 51st Street. For more information, call (212) 378-0248 or visit www.stbarts.org/music.asp.