Music Reviews : Tallis Scholars Sing Renaissance Program at City Hall

It would be hard to find more perfect music-making--and how wonderfully appropriate, on Easter Sunday--than in the exquisite blend and clear tone of the Tallis Scholars, delivered in the acoustically dynamic rotunda of Los Angeles City Hall.

It wasn’t just that the English ensemble, heard here in its Southland debut, sang with impeccable accuracy, flawless intonation and unceasingly correct balance. Nor that the singers were able, under conductor Peter Phillips’ sure leadership, to execute attacks with complete unanimity and to maintain absolute rhythmic synergy, even when separated in counterposed balconies.

More important was the sound that the 10-voice ensemble produced. Using virtually no vibrato, the Scholars create a sound that is pure, reverent and remarkably homogeneous. It is the kind of sound that allows each individual contrapuntal line to emerge cleanly.

Perhaps even more gratifying is the emotional warmth the Scholars exude. Work such as Palestrina’s “Surge illuminare” communicated an infectious joyousness; that composer’s Magnificat for Double Choir projected a drama of moving intensity heightened by the antiphonal writing.

The program, albeit short, was not an easy one. Allegri’s “Miserere” demands several high C’s from the sopranos, yet never did the singers force. All of the singers delivered the musical lines with convincing momentum, suggesting not only a thorough understanding of the musical architecture but firm belief in the texts so cogently rendered.