Lammermuir Festival: Secret Byrd
St Mary’s, Haddington - 13/09/23
Gesualdo Six | Fretwork | Concert Theatre Works | Bill Barclay, director
On the day when it was announced that the Lammermuir Festival had had its funding withdrawn by Creative Scotland, the funding for this Festival, which is happening now, and has seen full houses, brilliant performances and a wide variety of music, involving large numbers of performers from Scotland and further afield, who are all expecting to be paid for their services; on this day, I attended another utterly brilliant concert in St Mary’s Church, Haddington, by the Gesualdo Six and Fretwork, entitled ‘Secret Byrd’. The irony of the situation is obvious, but tragic. This is another example of the dead hand of bureaucracy stifling creativity, excellence and the very lifeblood of classical music in this country, all couched in the name of ‘Fair Work, Inclusion, Diversity and Equality’, as if classical musicians and festivals are some sort of elitist monster organism, desperate to destroy society somehow, by offering top quality performances for everyone at very reasonable prices, of some of the most wonderful music ever written. Sign the petition, write to your MP and MSP, write to the newspapers, write to Creative Scotland, and their hapless English colleagues at Arts Council England. We will not stand by and let great music, and the livelihood of thousands in this country working in the Arts, be destroyed by small minded chauvinists. The attempted destruction of ENO and Glyndebourne Touring Opera (actually taking opera to the provinces!), the BBC Singers, Radio 3, Classical Music on Radio Scotland etc. must be defeated.
Interestingly, the concept of ‘Secret Byrd’ is related to this theme, as the Gesualdo Six and Fretwork, directed by Bill Barclay, sought to recreate a clandestine mass as practised by the many Catholics remaining after the Tudor Reformation in England in the mid-Sixteenth century. They were determined to continue to worship the way they wanted, and not succumb to the dread edicts of the time, prohibiting Catholic worship. More bureaucracy, but with extra powers like torture, hanging and beheading thrown in. At least Creative Scotland and ACE haven’t tried that yet!
As with the beanbag concert at the EIF with the Budapest Festival Orchestra, I was initially wary about the idea of a promenade concert by candlelight in St Mary’s. I feared for a mishmash of different performance styles, but the programme really worked, and the result was life-enhancing.
It helped enormously that the performers were so superb. Fretwork have been delighting audiences for decades with their beautiful viol consort playing, and the Gesualdo Six has established itself as one of Britain’s finest small vocal ensembles.
The centrepiece of the concert was the great Mass for Five Voices, written by William Byrd (1540-1623), one of England’s finest composers, the 400th anniversary of whose death we celebrate this year. This mass was published between 1592 and 1595, and particularly in the Agnus Dei, we can feel the anguish felt by Byrd, who remained a Catholic despite the dangers to all who followed the old rites. More of the mass later.
A table had been set up in the crossing of St Mary’s, where last week the staging of Strauss’s ‘Daphne’ had taken place. Around the table the Gesualdo Six were arranged, in position for a meal and a service. Members of the audience sat among them and must have had a wonderful experience immersed in this fabulous sound world. Fretwork played mostly at the eastern end of the church, six players on viols small and large, and they played at intervals throughout the evening, especially between movements of the mass. Byrd wrote an enormous amount of viol consort music, and Fretwork have been playing it ever since their foundation in 1988, since when they have established themselves as paragons of this music, and the many other composers of the era from Taverner to Purcell. In addition, they have pioneered contemporary works for viol consort, commissioning over 40 new works. I own many of their discs, and often turn to them when I want to lose myself in gentle reflection and quiet contentment, luxuriating in the perfection of their playing and the sonority of their harmonies. It was the first time I had heard them live, and I wasn’t disappointed. Byrd lived a long time; he was 83 when he died, and he lived through one of the most turbulent times in English history. Given his adherence to the old Catholic faith, and his frequent clashes with authority, this longevity is astonishing, and says much for his fame as a composer, and for the protection given by important people at court. His collaboration with his older colleague, Thomas Tallis (1505 -1585), produced some of the finest music ever to come out of England, and we are lucky that so much of it was preserved. The fact that these two titans of Renaissance music both lived to the age of 80+, means that they effortlessly dominated English music for over 100 years, an absolutely astonishing period, given that the average lifespan at the time was about 50!
Fretwork played two Fantasias, an In Nomine and a couple of Pavans and Galliards in the concert, and their smooth homogenous sound was very suited to the generous acoustic of St Mary’s.
Looking back at my review of the Gesualdo Six at the Lammermuir Festival 2021 (when we were emerging from the awful Covid pandemic), I noted that I had particularly enjoyed the singing of the countertenor Guy James and the bass Owain Park. Well, they were even better in this concert, and I thought the others were equally superb- Alasdair Austin (the new countertenor) who assumed priestly duties in the staging, Joseph Wicks (a rare Haute-Contre, a tenor with a high falsetto top), Josh Cooter (tenor) and Michael Craddock (a strong baritone).
I am going to wax lyrical about Guy James, because this young man has an exceptional voice, very high, but also with a creamy beautiful tone which rang out spectacularly in the warm acoustic. He never faltered throughout the entire concert, pouring out a rich honeyed sound which I think can be compared with the very best. In my long career as a singer, I was lucky enough to sing alongside some of the finest countertenors of the last 50 years, including James Bowman, David James, Michael Chance, Brian Osawa, Robin Blaze and Lawrence Zazzo, and I have no hesitation in putting Guy on a comparable level. I chatted to him briefly after the concert, and he told me he has sung very little opera. He should! The many Handel roles written for castrati would be perfect for him, as he goes very high, and I would love to hear him sing Oberon in Britten’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. I have sung either Theseus, Bottom or Snug in numerous productions, including the Philips recording conducted by Sir Colin Davis, with Bowman, Zazzo and Osawa, and I am sure Guy would be a match for any of these. My favourite is still James Bowman, with quite a different sound, much lower and fruitier than Guy, but I caught the same quirky humour that James had in Guy’s conversation, and I would encourage him to take a little time out from Gesualdo Six to explore a solo career. I know that David James often took short time outs for solo operatic work when he was soaring above the Hilliard Ensemble as their dominant countertenor, and I reckon Guy could do the same. Like David, his sound epitomises the vocal group, and they would be much diminished without him, but it would, in my opinion, be a terrible waste if the world didn’t hear young Mr James in opera. He may not be interested, and that would be his decision, but I think he should give it a go!
We were able to hear him towards the end of the concert, when he sang the beautiful song, ‘Ye Sacred Muses’ for alto and viol consort, lamenting the death of Tallis in 1585, and the evening was made even more special by the singing by the ensemble of the sublime Agnus Dei from the Four Part Mass, one of the most moving of all Byrd’s compositions.
This was another really excellent and fascinating evening, and I have to give a spoiler alert to anyone who goes to further ‘Secret Byrd’ performances by warning those of a nervous disposition that things go bump in the night. It was a brilliant moment! Congratulations are due to Bill Barclay for terrific direction, to all the performers for a wonderful show, and to the many helpers who served wine, soup and bread to members of the audience, who were able to wander freely round the church and to get up close to the performers. There was a second show an hour after the first finished, so congratulations for stamina too!
Cover photo: Mark Allan
