For admirers of early music, the Tallis Scholars have long been
considered preeminent.
Founded twenty-three years ago in London by Peter Phillips, they
have made
a name for themselves on five continents. And they have made that
name performing
composers sufficiently obscure in this century that only
cognoscenti would recognize
them.
Around arcane
four-hundred-year-old manuscripts, the Oxford-educated Phillips
assembled and trained a
group which has become not only the leading exponent of
Renaissance sacred vocal music, but arguably its finest performers.
As well, Phillips has created a
cottage industry: the music label, Gimell, which solely records the
Tallis Scholars, and an eighty-tours-yearly concert schedule.

So it was that expectant audiences
gathered in October to hear the Tallis Scholars perform for
three evenings at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in New York.[1]
Each night was a representative tour of the sacred music from
three of Europe’s centers of Renaissance musical development: St. Mark’s
in Venice, the Chapel
Royal in London, and the Hofkapelle in Vienna.

The first night’s destination
was the Basilica of St. Mark’s which, through its
succession of Flemish
maestri di capelli, developed into a music institution of unique
scope and influence. The
concert’s subtitle, “Lassus at St. Mark’s,” refers to Orlandus Lassus
(1532–1594),
one of the greatest masters of Renaissance music—even
its culmination.
Though a few contemporaries of
his, such as Palestrina
and Gabrieli, may be better known to us now, in his day Lassus was
the most revered and
famous