Spitalfields Festival, 22nd June 2006
“Stunning! And I don’t just mean the waistcoats. For behind the Orlando Consort’s five colourful chests were their glorious voices, tunnelling through medieval polyphony’s horizontal maze with forthright skill and beauty. And behind them stood Peter Broadbent’s Joyful Company of Singers, one of the most agile and flexible choirs in the land, as comfortable tussling with today’s music as they are gliding through plainchant.
The festival’s late concert on Thursday brought the groups together in an inspiring programme. The framework was Guillaume de Machaut’s towering ‘Messe de Nostre Dame’, one of Western music’s best early treasures. The Orlando voices navigating its disparate lines and speeds, hiccupping rhythms and harmonic collisions was pleasurable enough. The icing arrived watching them hold their ground, each mouth under separate orders, fused in singing of intense beauty.
Between the Mass movements came not only Gregorian chants, smoothly delivered by Broadbent’s choir, but a magnificent Spitalfields commission, Scattered Rhymes, devised by Tarik O’Regan as a companion to the Machaut. Motifs and chord clashes from the Mass gave him his seedbed; two 14th-century texts about human and divine love by Petrarch and Anonymous gave him his words.
And off he went, pitching both vocal groups into a multi-plane display of soaring lines and rocking rhythms, merging the 14th and 21st centuries in the friendliest embrace.
O’Regan’s gift for lyric flight seems boundless. You might have to reach back to Vaughan Williams’s Serenade to Music, or even Tallis, to find another British vocal work so exultant. The earlier concert by Joyful Company of Singers had its own peaks in the cross-section of music by the composer of CRY, Giles Swayne. We heard the fond indiscretions of youth (Shakespeare settings, parented by Britten and Ligeti) and middle age (gushing treatments of Keats). In the rugged and masterful Passiontide Motets we heard a new searing cry, for peace. He’s a composer of generous passion and imagination, and Broadbent’s singers responded in kind. Joyful company indeed.” Geoff Brown, ‘The Times’
Cheltenham Festival, 11th July 2006
“It has been a wonderful experience for us all. Congratulations to you for thinking up the project in the first place, what a great idea. And to get it off the ground too with funding is no mean achievement. You are taking a big risk and putting your reputation at stake performing with amateurs – and especially allowing amateur conductors to conduct! Thinking back a year to when we were first invited to do a concert in the Cheltenham Festival, I can remember saying that it might be preferable to do a joint concert if a suitable partner group could be found but doubted that that was likely. As it has turned out, we couldn't have wished for a better and more happy partnership and we will look back with much pleasure and satisfaction for a long time to come.” Tim Morris, Conductor, The Oriel Singers.
“I am writing to thank you for the wonderful performance you gave on Tuesday 11th July with the Oriel Singers as part of the 2006 Cheltenham Music Festival. It was great to hear the audience responding with such warmth and enthusiasm to your concert”. Martin Brabbins, Artistic Director, Cheltenham Festivals.
“It's quite remarkable to me that just four voices could sustain the intensity and the rhythmic and harmonic accuracy necessary to perform this music successfully but the Orlando Consort were triumphant. A most stimulating programme, superbly sung and given in inspiring surroundings on a beautiful summer evening. This sort of all-round enterprise and excellence, surely, is what festivals should be all about.” Seen and Heard Concert Review.
Brighton Early Music Festival, 20th October 2006-11-24
“It was very rewarding for me to work on the O’Regan with you and the collaboration really worked well I felt. I know the choir thoroughly enjoyed the experience and I was very pleased with what they achieved. I thought it was a very powerful and effective piece of writing, and I felt we produced a very creditable and dynamic performance on the night. It was great to work with you again and very stimulating to work with the Orlando Consort. You all showed great generosity of spirit in rehearsal and performance, and you provided us with some truly consummate music making in the Machaut Mass. Many congratulations!” John Hancorn, Conductor, Brighton Early Music Festival Singers.
“I wanted to say a big thank you from Deborah and me for the Orlando Consort’s contribution to the festival – you put together a truly original and inspirational performance and the BREMF Singers in particular really enjoyed singing and tackling Scattered Rhymes. Deborah and I were both really impressed by the number of BREMF Singers who came up to us with unsolicited comments about how much they were loving rehearsing Scattered Rhymes and what an exciting project it was to be a part of. The enthusiasm for the BREMF Singers for the project and their thrill at performing such a challenging piece at such a high level was tangible!” Clare Norburn, Co-director, Brighton Early Music Festival.
“I rather enjoy picking away at early music, and I greatly enjoy it when performed by groups as fine as the Orlando Consort. I have loved the Machaut ‘Messe de Notre Dame’ for a very long time and so the whole concert was heaven.” Chorus Member, BREMF Singers, Brighton.
RNCM, Manchester, 16th November 2006
“I had the immense pleasure of the performance the other week at the RNCM, thanks to all concerned for a truly thrilling choral experience. The pieces, especially Scattered Rhymes, interspersed with the Messe and the Hallé Youth Choir chant illuminated Machaut’s work (which is on first hearing a bit odd with all the dissonance etc), and the performance by all artists was perfect. So my question is are you going to record this programme? It would be a real shame not to, and you’ve got at least one guaranteed sale!” Audience Member, RNCM, Manchester.
“Question: I am a member of the Hallé Youth Choir and recently performed Tarik O’Regan’s Scattered Rhymes with you at the RNCM in Manchester. I thought that the music that you sang was the most amazing thing I have ever heard, and in particular the last thing you performed. I didn’t get a programme for the concert, and I wondered if you could tell me the name of that piece? (Ans: Brumel: Nato canunt omnia). How long do you rehearse for to prepare pieces of that standard?” Member of the Hallé Youth Choir.
“It's been a fascinating journey from beginning to end, and I'm really pleased that we managed to make it work here.” Toby Smith, Head of Performance and Programming, RNCM.
“It was really great that you could come to join us on Sunday for the workshop. Thanks so much for taking the time to visit. I am sure the kids will have got a lot out of it, and it was invaluable to have you there to talk to them in person, sing and play them the music.” James Burton, Director, Hallé Youth Choir.
St George’s Bristol, 3rd February 2007
 “Just a quick note to thank you and the Consort for the concert last night. Chatting among the members afterwards, they felt that it had been a great privilege to have had this opportunity to sing with you all. Your relaxed encouraging approach was much appreciated!
It was also wonderful to be part of such successful 'fusion' of new and old in the programming. Both audience and choir were very impressed with the overall effect.” Alison Grant, Secretary, Bristol Bach Choir.
“Thank you very much for being so fantastically professional and supportive during the whole project. I'm very glad that we met your expectations. It is very important for the choir to be able to have the opportunity to work with such an excellent group as yours, and I think they gained a great deal from it. Thanks also for being so relaxed and enthusiastic on the day! As things went, the work paid off and I think it was (if I'm allowed, as conductor to say so!) a very dramatic performance indeed. The sections for Orlando alone were superb, and I came away with those snappy rhythms and Petrarch texts buzzing in my brain.” Peter Leech, Conductor, Bristol Bach Choir.
“From the back row of your vocal backing group, I greatly enjoyed last Saturday’s concert in Bristol. Thanks for a brill evening!” Chorus Member, Bristol Bach Choir.
 “Just a short email to say how much I enjoyed Saturday night's performance. If I'm honest, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect (!), but I thought the Tarik O'Regan piece just worked so well being interspersed between the movements of the Machaut. Each one increased the enjoyment of the other. I hope you enjoyed the experience of performing here, as well as that of working with the Bristol Bach Choir. I've just received an email from one of their members, and they thought it was great. Well done!” Suzanne Rolt, Director, St George’s Brandon Hill, Bristol.
Newcastle Early Music Festival, 4th March 2007
“Thank you all for the opportunity to take part - and of course for your splendid performance of the Machaut. It was a great chance for the students to sing alongside one of the world's best vocal ensembles, and I know that they got a real buzz from taking part.” Dr Eric Cross, Newcastle University.
“I should like to thank you very much for giving us the opportunity for students to work so creatively. Yes, it was a steep climb, and it was a relief when it all came off! But it was also one of those enterprises which took the singers beyond the familiar and the everyday - and that is what it's all about.” Dr Magnus Williamson, Newcastle University.
Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford-on-Avon, 21st April 2007
“Rarely do my wife and I find ourselves still talking about such events during lunch on the next day, but we did this time. I just want to sit down and listen all over again.” Audience member, by e-mail.
“Many thanks for managing to fit BoA into your project schedule, and for enabling me to be involved in it. It was a great musical event, and an enormous pleasure to work with you all, and all the choir thought so too. I have always been a bit ambivalent about the Machaut, admiring its structure but not often really convinced by listening to it - but I thought you did it magnificently, better than I've ever heard it. The programme structure helped by spacing the movements out, but mostly it was because it was so resonant and well-tuned, and it sounded magnificent in the space. Despite the concentration levels required I really enjoyed the O'Regan too, especially the first movement, which is a really impressive piece when it's all there, and the end of the Carver was particularly splendid.” Keith Bennett, Director of the Marenzio Singers.
Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham, 3rd May 2007
“There has been lots of positive feedback from audience members and students following the concert last week. I'm so pleased we were able to programme it for Lakeside - it was really valuable for the students (who have asked to be involved in similar projects in the future - always a good sign!) and it was wonderful to hear the Consort perform here.” Catherine Hocking, Music Officer, Lakeside Arts Centre.
“Just a quick note to say thanks again to you and all the Orlandos for what was a wonderful concert on Thursday! I enjoyed it immensely - it was a delight to perform the O'Regan piece and the chants, and a great pleasure to sit back and enjoy your superlative singing in the Machaut and other pieces. The students were buzzing afterwards - those who sang in the choir and those who were in the audience. I think the whole thing was something of a revelation for many of them! Thanks to all of you for being so positive and encouraging with them at rehearsals.” Jonathan Tilbrook, Conductor, Viva Voce.
“The concert was absolutely smashing--a real virtuoso tour de force. I couldn't believe the quality of the sound--the singing was spot-on throughout. And the juxtaposition of the O'Regan piece was a stroke of genius. The choir performed beyond everyone's wildest expectations. So thank you, for sharing a really memorable experience. I hope you enjoyed it as well.” Paula Higgins, Professor of Music, Nottingham University.
“Just a quick email to thank you and the other members of the Orlando Consort for such an excellent performance last night - it was the best concert I've been involved in since I came to University a year and a half ago, and a great honour to be given the opportunity to sing a solo in front of such fine singers!” Nick (“the guy who sang the sursum corda”), Member of Viva Voce.
Turner Sims Concert Hall, Southampton, 12th May 2007
“Thanks a million for a brilliant concert, and all your constructive help and encouragement beforehand, getting us ready. Having Robert Macdonald in the back row, amongst the basses was a huge bonus and greatly appreciated.” Dave, Member of Taunton Community Choir.
“Saturday was a memorable night for us and if the enthusiastic e-mail I received from a member of the community choir this morning is anything to go by the Southampton singers enjoyed it too. Let's see what else that we can collaborate on in the future.” Kevin Appleby, Manager, Turner Sims Concert Hall
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