"Joby Talbot's ambitious a cappella Path of Miracles is little short of a musical miracle in itself"
Nick Breckenfield
"It's an interesting musical journey for composer, performers and
listeners alike"
Classic FM
"Joby Talbot has been making quite a name for himself
recently. Path of miracles can only add to that reputation: it's a
real achievement"
International Record Review
"From it's opening eerie rising vocal glissando (a Taiwanese singing effect called pasiputput) for the gentlemen of Nigel Short's Tenebrae, to the final distribution of the pilgrims having reached Finisterre, west of Santiago, when the singers disappear from view, singing and chanting into the distance until all that is left is silence, Joby Talbot's ambitious a cappella Path of Miracles is little short of a musical miracle in itself. I would go so far as to suggest that this is to the first decade of the 21st century what Arvo Pärt's Passio was twenty years earlier"
Nick Breckenfield
Classic FM Magazine, July 2006
***
I predict you will never have heard anything like the first two minutes of this piece: Tenebrae's voices rise in pitch in a long, throaty glissando, like the gradual tensioning of an enormous cable. Path of Miracles, a work for unaccompanied voices, is based on the pilgrimage from the foot of the Pyrenees to Santiago in northwest Spain. It's an interesting musical journey for composer, performers and listeners alike. Joby Talbot is an eclectic artist who composes for both film and television. Incidentally, he also arranged the strings for Paul McCartney's latest album, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard
John Brunning
International Record Review, June 2006
Joby Talbot has been making quite a name for himself recently. Path of miracles can only add to that reputation: it's a real achievement. The path of the work's title is that of the Pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela, and the work's structure follows the four principal points of the Camino francés, Roncesvalles, Burgos, León and Santiago, in a complex and imaginative multilingual libretto by Robert Dickinson. Talbot's musical vocabulary is wide-ranging, including as it does Taiwanese vocal techniques (providing a haunting beginning), reflective refrains that suggest Pärt, a dash of blue close-harmony and, last but not least, an underlying preoccupation (whether conscious or unconscious I could not say) with the Anglican choral tradition and plainchant. Despite the latter, I have to say that the piece is something of a patchwork. This does not arise, I think, from the use of different languages per se, but from the isolated nature of the musical responses to the different layers of the libretto. Memorable moments abound none the less; too many, in fact, to single out. I imagine the work's impact when heard live would be even greater. The comparison with Pärt's Passio quoted on the back of the CD is rather wide of the mark: it is precisely the unrelenting consistency of the latter that makes it what Path of Miracles is not. Tenebrae sounds completely at home with all of these styles and, under Nigel Short's direction, positively driven. The singing is the best I have yet heard from the group, vibrant and incisive, with some tremendous solo work. If I have a quibble, it is with the bizarre pronunciation of the Greek texts, neither Erasmian nor modern (perhaps the intention was a half-way house), and, probably more seriously, with Signum's retaining of the apostrophe in the phrase 'From it's opening', quoted from the aforementioned press review: a tiny point, but with this important release of a work that demands attention both spiritual and intellectual to this degree, important nevertheless.
Ivan Moody
Choir and Organ Magazine, August 2006
After the eerie opening effect - a glissandi, Taiwanese style, bursting into the pilgrims hymn from Dum Pater Familias - you know you are about to embark on a remarkable musical journey. Path of Miracles in four movements - Roncescalles, Burgos, Leon and Santiago - follows the ancient pilgrim route along the 'camino frances' in sound. The music weaves together diverse themes and styles encompassing sparse, cleasr writing with subtle use of harmony portraying the text. Talbot builds to climaxes subtlly and withdraws from them with ingenuity, the work moving seamlessly along its way. Rhythmic passages are put against sustained vocal lines adding to the overall effect. This a cappella work is very demanding of its singers and Tenebrae answer every question asked of them. It is a tour de force and absolutely stunning.
Shirley Ratcliffe
Choir and Organ Magazine, August 2006
Article: Pilgrim Partners
A new partnership has been forged between the vocal ensemble Tenebrae and the London Symphony Orchestra. Former King's Singer Nigel Short, who founded Tenebrae four years ago, tells how this came about: 'We did several concerts for the City of London Festival over the years. Representatives from the LSO thought that certain repertoire might be better with a small, professional chamber choir; and we were very delighted when they asked us if we were interested in the idea. The first concerts will be this December, with Messiah and L'enfance du Christ with Sir Colin Davis conducting, so that will get the association off to a cracking start.' The LSO will use a smaller orchestra for Messiah and Tenebrae will increase to 34 singers, and 40 for the Berlioz. Short says, 'I hope this partnership will develop. We've done lots of a cappella music of Poulenc, MacMillan and other contemporary composers, but we don't have a regular orchestra backing us; this will allow us to tackle new repertoire and develop the group's profile further.'
The ensemble has just completed its first pilgrimage on the Santiago de Compostella route, giving six a cappella concerts from San Juan de Ortega to Ponferrada. The tour included three performances of Joby Talbot's Path of Miracles, commissioned by the ensemble. Short comments: 'Tenebrae's a cappella concerts are by candlelight and we move around; but we didn't want to move around for the sake of it, we wanted to commission a work that actually is about a journey. Talbot did the pilgrimage himself and it's fantastic to have the chance to do it on the pilgrimage route itself.' October sees the release on Signum of Miserere (SIGCD085), with Renaissance and contemporary works.
The Times, April 2006
Three and a half years in the making, Path of Miracles is a choral cycle structured around the renowned pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain - a more serious endeavour than the film soundtracks and pop arrangements for Paul McCartney and the Divine Comedy that Talbot has become known for.
Incorporating traditions of vocal music from medieval France, Renaissance Italy and even Taiwan, the four movements here are named after pilgrim staging posts and chronicle a valedictory, adverse and penitent journey for more than an hour.
Quotes in various archaic languages from medieval sources are woven in with contemporary poetry by Robert Dickinson. The textures created by the mixed ensemble Tenebrae make this an evocative odyssey, though like the pilgrimage itself, it requires a great deal of contemplative stamina.
