Tudor Choristers | 500 years of Palestrina
5 April, 2025, St John’s, Camberwell, VIC
There’s a reason why Palestrina has been a celebrated composer for the past almost 500 years. His music is technically brilliant, as well as pleasing to the ear. Meaning, the music is a triple threat: challenging for the performers, choir and conductor.
So it was ambitious, but certainly not out of reach, that The Tudor Choristers’ Artistic Director, Carlos del Cueto delivered a well crafted and executed program of music from the Renaissance, including Hans Leo Hassler, William Bryd, Tomas Lius de Victoria and the masterwork, the Missa Ave Regina Coelorum by Giovanni Pierluigi de Palestrina.
The first part of the concert, described as the entree, was a mixture of Renaissance sacred music from across Europe. All designed to get us into the zone and adjust our ears to the temperament of the time.
We heard the German composer Hassler’s Cantate Domino, Englishman Bryd’s Kyrie from the Mass for Four Voices, from Spain we heard Victoria’s Kyrie from the Requiem in Six Parts. And to finish our extensive selection of musical entrees, Palestrina’s Sicut Cervus. All lovely, and well delivered.
Watching Carlos conduct is a joyful act in itself. He never seems to place demands on the ensemble but elicits a wonderful response, with clear musical outcomes. It’s a mature ensemble, with a mature sound, and the lines and entries were clean and clear. There was also a great release of sound when the Tudors were given the go-ahead. No need for Cueto to coax that out of the choir!
The meat and potatoes of the concert was Palestrina’s glorious and enthralling Missa Ave Regina Coelorum, the full sung mass. There was a great deal of concentration by everyone, and a good deal of bar counting (those entries can be treacherous), which all added up to a very satisfying performance.
I especially enjoyed the fluidity with which the changes in tempo and time signature were navigated in the Gloria, and the word painting in the Credo. There was energy and uplift in the Sanctus and great sweetness when the choir parts were reduced to selected singers for passages in pairs.
The performance was a fitting tribute to one of the greats of the western classical canon.
Music director and conductor Carlos del Cueto has a beautiful synergy with the Tudors. You can see the singers responding to his every gesture and encouragement. There’s been a lot of work behind the scenes since the last concert. And I must say, well done, all that work is really paying off.
