Perfect group for the perfect venue
TONY SHEEHAN of the Triskel Arts Centre is happy that the legendary Hilliard Ensemble has been coaxed to Cork to perform on Saturday in the beautiful surroundings of Christchurch.
“It’s a huge coup for us, as well has having been a long-term ambition of mine. I still can’t believe it’s actually happening — that we’re bringing such a world-class group to Cork,” Sheehan says.
Founded in 1974, this English male-vocal chamber group was named after the renowned Elizabethan painter of miniatures, Nicholas Hilliard — both painter and quartet reproduce perfection on a small scale.
The members of the ensemble have changed, but the passionate adherence to exquisite vocal music has not. Today, the ensemble is represented by counter-tenor David James, tenor Rogers Covey-Crump, tenor Steven Harrold, and baritone Gordon Jones. Most of its work is music of the medieval and Renaissance periods, but it has developed an international reputation for working with contemporary composers, notably Arvo Pärt, Gavin Gryars and Heinz Holliger. Extraordinarily, too, its members improvise, which is most unusual for such a group. That makes their music and their live performance even more special.
Composer Stephen Hartke has called the Hilliard “the Rolls Royce of vocal ensembles”, and few would disagree. The Hilliard was in Cork once before, for an incredible performance with the jazz saxophonist Jan Gabarek. This time, however, lovers of beautiful vocal music will have the privilege of hearing this superb quartet in Christchurch, surely the perfect venue for such a recital.
“That’s almost the most exciting thing,” says Sheehan. “It’s bringing two wonderful things together. If you think about it, we strove to create a really special place for music in Cork, and we have that in Christchurch, acknowledged as one of the finest acoustic spaces in the country and gaining a growing reputation of one of the best places in the world to hear music. It holds just 250 people, which is the ideal, intimate size. You’re not lost in a large concert hall, and that’s what people love. You get to hear, and see, them close up.”
For years, Sheehan says, the Triskel had yearned for a space like this, and Sheehan is deeply thankful that Cork City Council had the wisdom to grasp their vision for Christchurch as a beautiful cultural space in the middle of the city.
The present building, dating from 1725, stands on the foundations of the medieval parish church of Holy Trinity, then the centre of tiny Cork. It was the church where the poet Edmund Spenser married Elizabeth Boyle in 1594. Remember Spenser’s Epithalamion and its joyous demand to the people of Cork to dance and celebrate with him? You’re standing on truly historic ground. “And now the Hilliard are coming to sing in that special way that they do: it’s really a landmark for us here at Triskel,” says Sheehan.
Saturday night’s programme, entitled Texts and Translations, has been specially selected by the members of the ensemble from their own favourites. They promise it will include the old beautiful songs, such as ‘Remember Me My Dear’, together with other haunting contemporary pieces.
“This concert is not just a concert. It will be an experience. Anybody who has been fortunate enough to hear the Hilliard Ensemble in live performance, or even listened to them on CD, has come away changed. It will be unforgettable.
“These days, when life is tough enough, to be able to put on something as wonderful as this is very important. We don’t get enough beautiful experiences in our lives. We should embrace the opportunity when it offers,” Sheehan says.
* The Hilliard Ensemble appears at Triskel Christchurch, Cork, on Saturday
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