One piece alone is worth a ticket to the Talisker Players’ latest programme at Trinity-St. Paul’s Church: the alternately dark and luminous Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, written by English composer Benjamin Britten during World War II.
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As sung by tenor Rufus Müller and performed by nine strings and French horn player Ronald George on Tuesday night, the six-song cycle captured all the moods, emotions and aural colours of the dark hours – perfectly exemplifying the programme’s theme, Starry Night.
In typical Talisker Players’ style, music was smoothly interspersed with spoken words chosen from contemporary as well as historical texts. These interludes were nicely read by actor Stewart Arnott.
As the evening balanced between the benign and malign forces of night, the music struck a balance between tonal and atonal. The closest that the music got to syrupy was Toronto composer Larysa Kuzmenko’s Nocturne and Dance, for tenor, flute and piano, as well as Camille Saint-Saëns’ Violons dans le soir (Violins in the Evening), for baritone violin and piano.
Probably the most striking of the contemporary pieces was La notte bella, by Nova Scotia-based John Plant, for baritone and piano trio.
Baritone Alexander Dobson was the other singer on the programme. His rich, flexible voice has a timbre that can be as dark as a moonless summer night.
Müller, a regular guest with Tafelmusik, brought particularly fine attention to detail to the stage.
Both singers had a knack for expertly shaping a musical phrase while also delivering the meaning of each text with great clarity.
The various instrumental players were all solid, with particularly fine work from pianist Peter Longworth, and, in the closing piece by Britten, by George on the tricky horn solos in the Britten Serenade.
The combination of darkened church, meditative readings and the dusky, oftentime diaphanous, music wove a strong spell over the course of the concert. It felt very much like having been transported to another world. Time stood still, and the hubbub of our daylight toil and hubbub seemed a distant memory.
That, too, was worth the price of admission.
The programme repeats on Wednesday evening (Feb. 1).
John Terauds
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Here are the Elegy and Dirge from Britten’s Serenade, as sung by Nicholas Phan, and performed by the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Ralf Gothóni. The horn player is John Thurgood:
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
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