Rory Boyle talks about Tallis’s Light
Always a nervous time attending the first rehearsal of a new piece. Apart from the nuts and bolts of sorting out any discrepancies in the score or unclear passages in the parts, there is always the concern of whether important matters like balance and overall structure work etc. – mark you, a little too late to do anything about the latter at this stage! Always reassuring to see safety in the stick and Michael Bawtree was excellent in this respect – he has a fantastic rhythmic grasp and splendid ears for spotting any rogue notes. Speeds were fine and he captured the atmosphere of the music well. Tom Wilkinson, the organist, was superb bearing in mind that he will be playing on 3 different organs for the performances coming up next week. St. Cuthbert’s has a veritable monster of an instrument with more registration possibilities than the hot dinners I have had over the past 60 years, and his choice of colour and mixture was more or less perfect. The brass quintet coped well although there needs to be more rhythmic accuracy in some areas – it is quite a demanding blow with the trumpet parts quite consistently high and the first trumpet asked for the sibelius file so that he can try it out on a D or C instrument.
I am pleased with how the piece has turned out – it has an austerity that I wanted but at the same time some playful passages which I think work well. Particularly pleased with the high horn writing at the climax just before the “Tallis” theme is heard and the organ mayhem is full on. Ed Armitage hid behind a large curtain during the rehearsal twiddling his knobs and dials and looking every inch a pilot with his headphones in place – the opening and closing sections were recorded as a taster for the Radio 3 In Tune programme on Monday which I shall try to catch if I can. An excellent pizza in a local Italian where every waiter seemed to know Michael intimately, rounded off a good rehearsal (and the beers helped of course). Looking forward very much to the performances.