Peter Phillips | |
|---|---|
 Phillips in 2006 | |
| Born | 15 October 1953 |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | St John's College, Oxford |
| Occupation(s) | Choral conductor, musicologist |
| Spouses |
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| Children | 3 |
| Website | Tallis Scholars Gimell Records |
Peter Phillips (born 15 October 1953) [1] is a British choral conductor, musicologist and writer. [2] He is the founder of the Tallis Scholars [3] as well as Gimell Records. [4] He has been the owner of the Musical Times since 1995. [5]
Phillips was born to Nigel Sayer Phillips and Patricia Ann Witchell, (née Wyatt) in Southampton. He was educated at Winchester College (1967–71) and St John's College, Oxford (Organ Scholar 1972–75). [6] He studied music with Hugh Macdonald, Denis Arnold and David Wulstan. [7] He subsequently taught at Oxford University, Trinity College of Music and the Royal College of Music in London (where he directed the Chamber Choir in succession to David Willcocks), but had resigned all these posts by 1988 in order to pursue a full-time career in conducting.
Phillips's first concert with the Tallis Scholars took place in St Mary Magdalen's Church in Oxford on 3 November 1973. The group was made up of choral scholars (hence the use of the word 'Scholars' in the title) and layclerks from the leading Oxbridge choral foundations. [8] From the beginning, Phillips aimed to produce a distinctive sound, influenced by choirs he admired, in particular the Clerkes of Oxenford. [9] However the repertoire he chose was idiosyncratic, based in his desire to explore neglected corners of the polyphonic repertories, continental as much as English. This first concert included music by Obrecht, Ockeghem, Lassus and Victoria. After the founding of Gimell Records in 1980, [10] the Tallis Scholars have gone on to fill many gaps in the recording catalogue, making discs devoted to such relatively unknown composers as Cardoso, [11] White, [12] Clemens, [13] Gombert, [14] Mouton, [15] Browne and Fayrfax.
Since winning the Gramophone Record of the Year Award in 1987, [16] the Tallis Scholars have been recognised as one of the world's leading ensemble in interpreting renaissance polyphony. That 1987 disc inaugurated a career-long project of recording all of Josquin des Prez’s masses, ready for the 500th anniversary of the composer’s death, in 2021. The ninth and last disc in the series also won an Award entitled Record of the Year – from the BBC Music Magazine – in 2021, 34 years after the first one. [17]
In 2013 he directed the Tallis Scholars in a 99-concert year of events, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the group. Amongst other countries they visited New Zealand for the first time, Australia for the seventh time, Japan for the 14th time, and the US for the 61st. [18] As of 2021, The Tallis Scholars have given more than two-thirds of their 2,500 concerts outside the UK. In November 2023 they celebrated their 50th anniversary with a special concert in the Middle Temple Hall in London
Phillips first met the composer John Tavener in 1977, which led to a lifelong friendship. [19] For many years Tavener was the only living composer to write for The Tallis Scholars, [20] a connection which resulted in pieces such as the Ikon of Light (1984), [21] Let not the Prince be silent (1988), the Lord's Prayer (1999), Tribute to Cavafy (1999) and The Requiem Fragments (2014), which was dedicated to Phillips. [22]
In more recent years Phillips has commissioned Eric Whitacre, [23] Gabriel Jackson, [24] Nico Muhly, [25] Ivan Moody, [26] John Woolrich, [27] Matthew Martin, [28] Christopher Willcock, [29] Michael Nyman, David Lang and in 2014 made a disc entirely dedicated to Arvo Pärt's tintinnabuli style.
Phillips gave his first Promenade concert in 1988, since when he has appeared eight more times, always with the Tallis Scholars, though in 2007 also with the BBC Singers, when the two groups joined forces to give the first modern performance of Striggio's 60-part Mass Ecco si beato giorno. Phillips and The Tallis Scholars appeared at the Proms on 4 August 2014 to help mark the anniversary of the outbreak of World War I, with a Requiem written for them by John Tavener, televised on BBC 4. In 2018 they returned to the Albert Hall to sing a specially adapted Compline service. [30]
In 1985 Phillips was invited by Philippe Herreweghe to conduct La Chapelle Royale of Paris and the Netherlands Chamber Choir, which sparked a lifelong interest in working with groups trained outside the Anglican choral tradition. These invitations also promoted in Phillips an interest in European culture, cuisines and languages. He has owned property in Paris since 1989 and given interviews in French, German, Italian and Spanish. He is also a student of Arabic (in which he has not given an interview).
Phillips started a collaboration with the BBC Singers in 2003, with whom he has now appeared in nearly 25 productions, most recently in May 2023. In 2021 he conducted them in a live broadcast from Maida Vale, featuring Mexican polyphony written for Puebla Cathedral. [31] [32] He has recorded with the Spanish group El León de Oro (Oviedo). Other groups he has worked with include Intrada (Moscow), Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and the Danish Radio Choir.
In 2018 he gave a six-part series of lectures on BBC Radio 3, entitled The Glories of Polyphony.
In 2000 Peter Phillips and David Woodcock set up the first Tallis Scholars Summer School in Oakham. [33] This was followed in 2005 by an extension in Seattle (US), and in 2007 by one in Sydney, Australia. He has also been involved with similar courses in Rimini, Evora and Barcelona. He lectured on the John Hall pre-University course in Venice from 1981 to 2019. [34]
Phillips began an association with Merton College Chapel in 1974 when, as an undergraduate, he directed Tallis's 'Why fum'th in fight' as a prelude to a performance of Vaughan Williams's Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis. The Tallis Scholars recorded regularly in Merton Chapel between 1976 and 1987, returning more permanently in 2005. In 2006, with the help of Jessica Rawson and Simon Jones, Phillips established a new choral foundation at the College. [35] This choir sang its first services under Phillips and Benjamin Nicholas in October 2008. [36]
In 2014 Phillips helped to establish the first of three London International Choral Competitions at St John's Smith Square. Among the judges were John Rutter, Emma Kirkby, Alastair Hume, Mark Williams and James O'Donnell. Featured composers have been John Tavener, Gabriel Jackson and Arvo Pärt. [37]
Phillips became a founding trustee of the Muze Trust, a charity designed to help with musical education in Zambia. At the invitation of Paul Kelly he visited Lusaka in 2010, directing Vox Zambesi in a concert and a recording, and continuing as a Trustee until 2023.
Phillips wrote a regular column for The Spectator on all aspects of classical music from January 1983 to May 2016. [38]
In 1995 he became the owner and publisher of the Musical Times – the oldest continuously published music journal in the world. [39] Phillips has also written for the Times Literary Supplement, Early Music Magazine, [40] The Times, [41] The Guardian, [42] the Musical Times, [43] the Royal Academy Magazine, the London Review of Books, [44] the BBC Music Magazine [45] and the Evening Standard.[ citation needed ] He featured in Bernard D Sherman's 2003 book Inside Early Music: Conversations with Performers. [46]
He has written three books:
In 1990 Phillips was the subject of The South Bank Show, introduced by Melvyn Bragg. It followed the course of renaissance polyphony through England and the Netherlands and was entitled "A Personal Odyssey". [50] [51]
In 2005, Phillips was made a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture, a decoration intended to honour individuals who have contributed to the understanding of French culture in the world, in his case Josquin des Prez.
From 2008 to 2016 he was made a Reed Rubin Director of Music at Merton College, Oxford, and in 2010 a Bodley Fellow. [52] In 2021 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of St John’s College, Oxford, where he had been Organ Scholar from 1972 to 1975. [53]
With the Tallis Scholars he has received: [54]
His 1980 recording of Allegri's Miserere was said by the BBC Music Magazine to be one of the 50 greatest recordings of all time. [55]
In 2009 the Tallis Scholars were voted by Early Music Today the fourth most influential early group in the history of the genre, after the instrumental ensembles of David Munrow, John Eliot Gardiner and Christopher Hogwood. [56] In 2013 they were voted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame [57] – about 120 names from the entire history of classical recording – the only early music group to be so listed.
Sir John Kenneth Tavener was an English composer, known for his extensive output of choral religious works. Among his best known works are The Lamb (1982), The Protecting Veil (1988), and Song for Athene (1993).
Thomas Tallis was an English composer of High Renaissance music. His compositions are primarily vocal, and he occupies a primary place in anthologies of English choral music. Tallis is considered one of England's greatest composers, and is honoured for his original voice in English musicianship.
John Taverner was an English composer and organist, regarded as one of the most important English composers of his era. He is best-known for Missa Gloria tibi Trinitas and The Western Wynde Mass, and Missa Corona Spinea is also often viewed as a masterwork.
John Sheppard was an English composer of the Renaissance.
Alonso Lobo was a Spanish composer of the late Renaissance. Although not as famous as Tomás Luis de Victoria, he was highly regarded at the time, and Victoria himself considered him to be his equal.
Duarte Lobo was a Portuguese composer of the late Renaissance and early Baroque. He was one of the most famous Portuguese composers of the time, together with Filipe de Magalhães, Manuel Cardoso, composers who all began their academic studies as students of Manuel Mendes. Along with John IV, King of Portugal, they represent the "golden age" of Portuguese polyphony.
Sir Stephen John Cleobury was an English organist and music director. He worked with the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, where he served as music director from 1982 to 2019, and with the BBC Singers.
Sir David Valentine Willcocks, was a British choral conductor, organist, composer and music administrator. He was particularly well known for his association with the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, which he directed from 1957 to 1974, making frequent broadcasts and recordings. Several of the descants and carol arrangements he wrote for the annual service of Nine Lessons and Carols were published in the series of books Carols for Choirs which he edited along with Reginald Jacques and John Rutter. He was also director of the Royal College of Music in London.
Alessandro Striggio was an Italian composer, instrumentalist and diplomat of the Renaissance. He composed numerous madrigals as well as dramatic music, and by combining the two, became the inventor of madrigal comedy. His compositions include the monumental Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno for up to 60 voices, rediscovered in 2005 after being lost for 400 years.
The Tallis Scholars is a British professional early music vocal ensemble established in 1973. Normally consisting of two singers per part, with a core group of ten singers, they specialise in performing a cappella sacred vocal music. Peter Phillips, the founder of the group, is its conductor. The group has released over 60 discs through its own label, Gimell Records and in 2013, they were elected to the Gramophone Hall of Fame. In 2023, Gramophone marked the group's 50th anniversary by dedicating a special edition of its magazine to them.
Spem in alium is a 40-part Renaissance motet by Thomas Tallis, composed in c. 1570 for eight choirs of five voices each. It is considered by some critics to be the greatest piece of English early music. H. B. Collins described it in 1929 as Tallis's "crowning achievement", along with his Lamentations.
Sir Richard Runciman Terry was an English organist, choir director, composer and musicologist. He is noted for his pioneering revival of Tudor liturgical music.
Stephen Mark Darlington is a British choral director, organist and conductor who served as Director of Music at Christ Church, Oxford, from 1985 to 2018. He is currently interim Director of Music at St John's College, Cambridge. His brother is the conductor Jonathan Darlington.
The BBC Singers is a professional British chamber choir, employed by the BBC. Its origins can be traced to 1924. One of the six BBC Performing Groups, the BBC Singers are based at the BBC Maida Vale Studios in London. The only full-time professional British choir, the BBC Singers feature in live concerts, radio transmissions, recordings and education workshops. The choir often performs alongside other BBC Performing Groups, such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and is a regular guest at the BBC Proms. Broadcasts are made from locations around the country: London venues have included St Giles-without-Cripplegate, St John's, Smith Square and St Paul's Church, Knightsbridge.
Stephen David Layton is an English conductor.
The Holst Singers are an amateur choir based in London, England. The choir is named indirectly after the English composer Gustav Holst, taking its name from the Holst Room at St Paul's Girls' School, the venue for rehearsals during the choir's early years.
David Skinner is a British musicologist and choir director. He works at the University of Cambridge, where he is the director of music at Sidney Sussex College and is an affiliated lecturer, teaching historical and practical topics from the medieval and Renaissance periods. He is the founder of the vocal consort Alamire, and the cofounder of the vocal ensembles Magdala and The Cardinall's Musick. He has produced more than 25 recordings. He has been associated with a number of award-winning projects.
Gimell Records was established in 1980 by Peter Phillips and Steve Smith, specifically to record the work of The Tallis Scholars. As of June 2024 its catalogue numbers 60 original albums and 15 compilation albums. The label "performed a pioneering role in the re-appraising of unaccompanied sacred choral music of the 15th and 16th centuries." According to Hyperion Records, Gimell was the first "single-artist label", preceding other similar labels by several years. It was also the first independent record label to receive the Gramophone Record of the Year award, achieving this feat in 1987 with a recording of Josquin des Prez.
Osbert Parsley was an English Renaissance composer and chorister. Few details of his life are known, but he evidently married in 1558, and lived for a period in the parish of St Saviour's Church, Norwich. A boy chorister at Norwich Cathedral, Parsley worked there throughout his musical career. He was first mentioned as a lay clerk, was appointed a "singing man" in c. 1534, and was probably the cathedral's unofficial organist for half a century. His career spanned the reigns of Henry VIII and all three of his children. After the Reformation of 1534, the lives of English church musicians changed according to the official policy of each monarch.
Caroline Trevor is an English contralto, focused on early music and Baroque music in historically informed performance. She has been one of two alto voices in the award-winning ensemble The Tallis Scholars since 1982.
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