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Sacred Music on BBC4
After enjoying Friday's episode of Sacred Music with its focus on the choral music Brahms and Bruckner, I found myself binging on the first series on the iPlayer. And the more I watched, the more I found to like.
The format of each programme was pretty simple: a series of historical segments, inter-cut with musical performances. The two strands are held together by Simon Russell Beale, who fronts the historical exposition sections — visiting important locations in each composer's life, taking to experts and, most excitingly of all, studying holograph scores in libraries — before returning to an English Church, where he discusses the music with Harry Christophers and the Sixteen.
While all the programmes are quite excellent, I particularly enjoyed the very first episode, which focused on the gothic music of the Notre Dame school. I really enjoyed the intimate four voice performances of Léonin and Pérotin and found the demonstrations of the structure of the polyphony really fascinating. But there were little moments like that throught-out the series, such as the performance of Byrd's four voice mass at Ingatestone Hall or the explanation of the arching phrases in Palestrina's Exsultate Deo, which neatly combined both beauty and enlightenment.
It reminds me of all the reasons why I love the BBC quite as much as I do.
The format of each programme was pretty simple: a series of historical segments, inter-cut with musical performances. The two strands are held together by Simon Russell Beale, who fronts the historical exposition sections — visiting important locations in each composer's life, taking to experts and, most excitingly of all, studying holograph scores in libraries — before returning to an English Church, where he discusses the music with Harry Christophers and the Sixteen.
While all the programmes are quite excellent, I particularly enjoyed the very first episode, which focused on the gothic music of the Notre Dame school. I really enjoyed the intimate four voice performances of Léonin and Pérotin and found the demonstrations of the structure of the polyphony really fascinating. But there were little moments like that throught-out the series, such as the performance of Byrd's four voice mass at Ingatestone Hall or the explanation of the arching phrases in Palestrina's Exsultate Deo, which neatly combined both beauty and enlightenment.
It reminds me of all the reasons why I love the BBC quite as much as I do.