Prom 25: Tallis Scholars/Phillips review – sheer sonic beauty

The Tallis Scholars gave a sublime performance of two striking choral works by the late John Tavener

wo works by John Tavener featured in this late-night Prom given by the Tallis Scholars under their founder-director, Peter Phillips. Both were written for the choir.

Ikon of Light, which dates from 1984, was inspired by the hymn to the Holy Spirit by the 11th-century Byzantine mystic St Symeon the New Theologian. Sparely accompanied by a string trio (here members of the Heath Quartet), Tavener's setting makes an apparent virtue of simplicity. This characteristic is partially deceptive, since in this monumental piece the composer frequently resorts to devices such as canon and palindrome to achieve his artistic ends. The Tallis Scholars' neat and eloquent account showed their vocal range at its widest, with the basses, in particular, reaching and holding some sepulchral low notes.

Memorable as Ikon of Light was, Requiem Fragments, completed before Tavener's death last November, was even more striking. It too makes a feature of canon, inspired by a motet by the Renaissance composer Josquin des Prez. Recondite though this might sound, in Tavener's hands the effect is magical. Accompanied by trombonists Barry Clements and Roger Harvey, plus all four members of the Heath Quartet, soprano soloist Carolyn Sampson floated a line of the purest ethereality over the choir's complex harmony beneath a setting of lines from the Latin Mass for the Dead, which was interspersed by individual words of significance to those of Hindu faith. The result reached a level of sheer sonic beauty rarely achieved in contemporary music.

Following this, as the Proms' contribution to Lights Out, Samuel West read Wilfred Owen's Anthem for Doomed Youth and the choir sang Tavener's exquisite miniature, The Lamb, providing a sombre close to a concert that had touched the sublime.