Voices from the Shadows: Lux Aeterna
A Requiem from Puebla Cathedral
Lamentations and motets from Spain and the New World
The Renaissance Singers, David Allinson
St Pancras New Church. 10 February 2024
I have reviewed The Rensaissance Singers many times over the years, and they always impress. But this concert was really something special. Not only was the performance outstanding, but the choice of music, much of it being heard for the first time in the UK, was a brilliant choice by their inspirational musical director and conductor David Allinson. Their programme was based on the music of Spain and the New World in the build-up to Easter and the traditional Day of the Dead celebrations, with a musical focus on two principal churches, the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Pueblo de los Angeles.
The London Bach Society was founded 70 years ago by Dr Paul Steinitz under the rather unambitious title of the ‘South London Bach Society’, but soon lost the ‘South’ part of the name. 1946 might not seem to be the ideal time to concentrate on things musical (and, indeed, devoted to a German composer), but they were not alone: The Arts Council and BBC Third Programme were launched around then, as were a number of orchestras. From the start, the focus of the LBS was to ‘get back to Bach in its original form’ at a time when Bach performance was very far from what we could no consider as being in any way ‘authentic’ with enormous choirs and orchestras, and a funereal approach to tempo and romantic notions of instrumentation, phrasing and articulation. To this end, the Steinitz Bach Players was founded, in 1968, bringing together a small group of professional musicians interested in period performance techniques on period instruments.
Andrew Benson-Wilson : Early Music Reviews + 