TONUS PEREGRINUS - authentic and original
ANTONY PITTS - composer/director/teacher/producer
GOLDEN RADIO - clarity, proportion, integrity
Seven Letters and other sacred choral music by Antony Pitts

Seven Letters and other sacred choral music by Antony Pitts

HYPERION CDA67507
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 1£13.49
210£12.49
 

All the texts here are sacred words – either from the Bible, or filtered through liturgical traditions of the last two thousand years – and the pieces on this recording form a sequence of personal responses to those words and the realities behind them.

Now available on iTunes

Tonus Peregrinus - Mad World - EP

Adoro te [3'55]
The Lord’s Prayer [3'58]
The First and Last [2'16]
Seven Letters [24'10]
O Love [3'46]
O Wisdom of God [9'38]
O Holy of Holies [4'16]
Amen [8'24]

      

TONUS PEREGRINUS at the South Bank - obligatory photocredit: Malcolm Crowthers
 


The beginning of 2005 at the BBC saw an unprecedented storm of public protest over the screening of a blasphemous musical on BBC Two and the consequent resignation of internationally award-winning BBC Radio 3 (90-93FM) producer, Antony Pitts.

Antony had worked at the BBC since just after university, starting as a secretary and ending up as a Senior Producer, and was well known for pushing back the boundaries of radio listening, creating some of the most challenging radio programmes ever broadcast. In 1995 he devised and produced an interactive radio & internet experiment for which he won the UK's most valuable industry accolade, the BT Radio Academy Award, and last year he was awarded the sought-after Prix Italia for a multi-layered collage of music and voices, A Pebble in the Pond. Throughout his time at the BBC Pitts was also conducting the early and new music ensemble TONUS PEREGRINUS, receiving a Cannes Classical Award for their chart-topping release of Arvo Pärt's Passio in 2003, and composing music for the Clerks' Group, Rundfunkchor Berlin, the Swingle Singers, Westminster Cathedral, and Klaus Heymann of Naxos. In June 2005, for the first time, a complete CD of his sacred choral music is to be released on one of Britain's leading independent record labels, Hyperion.

"At the centre of this new recording is Seven Letters - thought to be the only choral setting of St John's damning indictment of the first-century Church in Asia Minor from the Book of Revelation. Antony Pitts is a distinctive new voice whose music has been premiered at Wigmore Hall in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the Philharmonie Kammermusiksaal in Berlin. Pitts's choral music combines a jazz-infused idiom within a tight structure of traditional musical form and a response to the sacred texts which is both fervent and captivatingly heart-on-sleeve..."

The words of the Seven Letters are over 1900 years old, yet speak with a remarkably contemporary voice. The Laodiceans, the last of the seven churches addressed, think they are rich in worldly terms, but do not realize that spiritually they are "wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked". Each letter ends with the urgent refrain: "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the Churches".

"...each 'letter' is declaimed by one of seven virtuosic members of TONUS PEREGRINUS over a cyclical choral backdrop which insistently increases in intensity as the work moves through the seven 'letters' of the musical scale, A to G. Such multifaceted intricacy is typical of Pitts's approach in the other pieces presented here. In each case a 'pop'-style hook provides the listener with an immediate entry point, while repeated listening allows the full scope of the musical vision gradually to unfold."

Today the sites of the seven churches are as fascinating as they are diverse: a variety of ruins from the height of the ancient Mediterranean Empires co-exist alongside modern society at a number of levels. Ephesus is one of the most stunningly preserved towns from antiquity and is no longer inhabited except by tourists and those who earn their living from them; some of the other sites are obscure provincial towns with more recent Turkish names and a modern existence that seems so different, yet is connected to the glimpsed fragments of the past; the final site of Laodicea is now a complete ruin bleakly devoid even of tourists, where the nearby natural water supply is still sickeningly lukewarm - the adjective applied to the Laodicean Christians themselves.


 
 


THE GRAMOPHONE
EDITOR'S CHOICE

ON AN OVERGROWN PATH theovergrownpath.blogspot.com February 2006
Not the Grammy Awards ...
on Seven Letters and other sacred choral music by Antony Pitts (Hyperion CDA67507)
"...Here for starters are four of the best new classical releases featured On An Overgrown Path in the last twelve months which didn't appear among the Grammy winners... To complete the journey from medieval to modern there is another release featuring Antony Pitts, this time with him both as conductor and composer. Seven Letters is an always topical choral setting of St John’s damning indictment of the depravity of the first-century church in Asia Minor from the Book of Revelations. It was composed in 1998 but was not recorded until last year, and is scored for SSAATTBB. All credit to Hyperion for investing in new choral music, and for reminding everyone that recorded contemporary choral music is alive and kicking on both sides of the Atlantic. It was a Gramophone Editor's Choice, but wasn't on the radar of the Grammy Recording Academy. Take An Overgrown Path to Jerry Springer rebel grabs Gramophone accolade for more about Seven Letters and a four minute audio sample of this fine contemporary composition."

FANFARE November/December 2005
on Seven Letters and other sacred choral music by Antony Pitts (Hyperion CDA67507): "...As the comparisons with Pärt and Lauridsen suggest, Pitts's harmonic language is rich with added seconds and piquant cross-relations-though the earliest piece, The First and Last, is robustly, joyously triadic, and I for one hope that Pitts hasn't revoked his self-granted permission to write in this mode when he feels like it.
Most of the music on this program is performed one to a part; in this context, unlike a larger ensemble, one expects individual voices to be discernable, but still sufficiently well matched in strength and timbre as to produce a seamless musical fabric. I cannot find even the tiniest fault with TONUS PEREGRINUS in this respect.
...My first impulse on hearing this disc was to commend it unreservedly to each and every man, woman, and child on the planet, including those who think they don't like religious music, choral music, or music...
Heatedly recommended."

CROSS RHYTHMS www.crossrhythms.co.uk October 2005
on Seven Letters and other sacred choral music by Antony Pitts (Hyperion CDA67507): rating 10/10
"A number of contemporary composers are exploring early music as a source of inspiration, among them Arvo Pärt. Antony Pitts is clearly influenced by Pärt's ideas and if you like Pärt, you'll probably like this too. The pieces set texts from St Thomas Aquinas, the Gospels, Revelation, Angelus Silesius and the Advent 'O' Antiphons to shifting choral harmonies sung exquisitely by TONUS PEREGRINUS. All eight are soloists in their own right and won acclaim with Pitts for their award-winning recording of Pärt's Passio on Naxos. The voices are unaccompanied throughout but the texture is rich. I imagine these pieces are difficult to learn but oh so rewarding to sing once it all falls into place. I particularly like The First and Last which has hymnic qualities and a decidedly hummable melody. I've played this CD a lot and expect to play it a good many times more."

THE GRAMOPHONE August 2005 - Editor's Choice
on Seven Letters and other sacred choral music by Antony Pitts (Hyperion CDA67507): "Gloriously sung by this superb choir, Antony Pitts's collection of choral music has the potential to be a real runaway success. His is a compositional voice of real personality and imagination (no surprise to those of us who have admired Pitts's work as a truly original producer at BBC Radio 3...) Beautifully recorded, here's a collection of new music that has immediate appeal without ever relaxing into the 'easy' or the saccharine."

THE GRAMOPHONE August 2005
"A composer on a spiritual quest who's found the near-perfect singers for it"
on Seven Letters and other sacred choral music by Antony Pitts (Hyperion CDA67507):
"The Amen motet, two separate four-part groups of singers sharing the single word for almost nine minutes, comes at the end of this recital and impresses as a summation of Antony Pitts' work as represented. It seems rhapsodic but is carefully structured: a rich harmonic and contrapuntal score that always engages and can entrance...
...Pitts has also a fund of lively musical ideas. In the Seven Letters a solo voice (different each time) takes up the epistle's text while the other singers may hold a chord or punctuate with a monosyllabic or a staccato commentary; and then often a particularly lovely effect is achieved as all eight parts enter in fluid polyphony...
...TONUS PEREGRINUS is a double quartet of expert singers brought together by the composer. With firm, fresh voices and precise intonation, and almost (not quite) invariably sensitive to balance, they sound as ideal a group.....as he is likely to find this side of the Heaven to which so much of his music aspires."

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE August 2005
on Seven Letters and other sacred choral music by Antony Pitts (Hyperion CDA67507): ****performance ****sound
"...striking use of dynamic and spatial effects. The performances are excellent."

CLASSICAL NET www.classical.net 5 August 2005
on Seven Letters and other sacred choral music by Antony Pitts (Hyperion CDA67507): "...the originality and inventiveness of the music bowled me over... ...I need not stress that this group delivers immaculate performances of these works coupled with Hyperion's usual taste for the unusual and outstanding engineering; this is a disc to treasure."

ON AN OVERGROWN PATH theovergrownpath.blogspot.com 26 July 2005
on Seven Letters and other sacred choral music by Antony Pitts (Hyperion CDA67507): "Antony Pitts seems to be having the last laugh on the Jerry Springer – The Opera affair as his highly acclaimed new work Seven Letters is a choral setting of St John’s damning indictment of the depravity of the first-century church in Asia Minor from the Book of Revelation..."

SEQUENZA 21 www.sequenza21.com 26 July 2005
on Seven Letters and other sacred choral music by Antony Pitts (Hyperion CDA67507): "Jerry Springer rebel grabs Gramophone accolade"

INTERNATIONAL RECORD REVIEW July/August 2005
on Seven Letters and other sacred choral music by Antony Pitts (Hyperion CDA67507): "...it is enormously encouraging that every bar of his music is eminently singable... ...he is, undoubtedly, a serious and committed composer, and the quality of the singing here is quite outstanding."

MUSIC WEB www.musicweb-international.com July 2005
on Seven Letters and other sacred choral music by Antony Pitts (Hyperion CDA67507): "...This collection of pieces indicates that Antony Pitts is an original and thoughtful composer with his own distinctive voice. His music is accessible but I should imagine it makes considerable demands on the performers, not that you’d be aware of that while listening to the assured singing of TONUS PEREGRINUS. Pitts writes well for the human voice and, crucially, has a discerning eye for a text and for verbal imagery. This is an interesting and satisfying disc, which I’m very happy to recommend."

www.abeillemusique.com July 2005
on Seven Letters and other sacred choral music by Antony Pitts (Hyperion CDA67507): "Qui est Antony Pitts, me demanderez-vous, et je vous répondrai : aucune idée. Je lis donc le livret et voici ce que l'on peut en distiller. Pitts est producteur à la BBC depuis une douzaine d'années, ce qui ne l'empêche pas de composer et de remporter de nombreuses distinctions internationales, en particulier pour ses œuvres chorales - dans la lignée des grands musiciens de chœur anglaise - que chantent tous les plus grands ensembles britanniques et continentaux. Son langage musical, tonal mais pas trop, moderne sans être radical-boulézien, beau sans jamais être "facile", se situe sur une ligne tracée entre Holst et Britten en passant par Vaughan Williams, Byrd, Pärt, Tallis, et certains quartiers de Harlem - une ligne singulièrement courbe, certes, mais parfaitement continue pour peu que l'on veuille bien la suivre. C'est Antony Pitts en personne qui dirige le chœur TONUS PEREGRINUS, qu'il a fondé en 1990."

  
 
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