The Erebus Ensemble - Live at the Clifton Festival

Single CD/Standard Jewel Case 
Release Date: 30th October 2020
Physical & Digital Distribution: NAXOS

Tracklisting

Arvo Pärt (b1935): The Deer’s Cry; Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594): Kyrie from Missa Papae Marcelli; Gloria from Missa Papae Marcelli; John Sheppard (1515-1558): Libera Nos I; Christopher Tye (c1505-1573): Sanctus from Missa Euge Bone; Benedictis from Missa Euge Bone; Agnus Dei from Missa Euge Bone; Gregorio Allegri (1582-1652): Miserere mei; Jean l’Heritier (1480-1551): Surrexit pastor bonus; Arvo Pärt (b1935): Magnificat; John Tavener (1944-2013): The Lamb; The Lord’s Prayer 

Concept Overview

The Erebus Ensemble revel in and interact with the clear, warm acoustic at Clifton Cathedral in these live performances from the Clifton Festival. The recordings on this release are compiled from the first seven years of their residency at the Festival, where audiences have grown to appreciate their emotional impact and sincerity. 

The Erebus Ensemble has, since its inception, enjoyed devising programmes that combine the musical treasures of the Renaissance period with sacred works by living composers. 

There are numerous Erebus Ensemble videos on YouTube – but their performance of “The Deer’s Cry” by Arvo Pärt from the Clifton Festival in 2016 is exactly the one on this new release – and has had an incredible number of views – almost 35,000! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1odEFq10aJo 

Although all of these live recordings were made at Clifton Cathedral during the Clifton Festival, the listener may notice differences between them. A few are acoustically different because the Sanctuary behind the performance space was filled with scaffolding during renovation for one year. Additionally, at the time of recording these concerts, an album was not envisaged so different recording techniques were used to suit the repertoire of each concert. Audience noise has been kept to a minimum, but some may intrude. All recordings are direct to stereo or from surround sources. 

As well as full texts for each piece (and translations from the original Latin) the booklet contains informative background notes written by Tom Williams. 

Artist Biographies

The Erebus Ensemble was formed in 2012 and has in the intervening period gained a fine reputation for the clarity and power of its performances. It has given over forty concerts across the UK and Europe, and has appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, and BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM. The group regularly performs at the Spitalfields Festival and the Clifton International Festival of Music, and has given concerts at the festivals of Budleigh Salterton, Little Missenden and Lausanne (Switzerland), and Bath’s Bachfest. 

The group was a prize winner in the inaugural London International A Cappella Choir Competition at St John’s, Smith Square and was for three years the Ensemble-in-Residence at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre, performing several times at the Bristol Proms. In 2015 Erebus performed for the last night of the proms, premiering six forty-part commissions by composers including Nick Lloyd Webber, Murray Gold, David Bednall and Josephine Stephenson, as well as performing the great Spem in alium by Thomas Tallis. 

The Erebus Ensemble has become known for its versatility and enthusiasm for multi-discipline performances and has built a close relationship with Harry Bicket and the English Concert. It has collaborated with the orchestra and theatre director Tom Morris on staged productions of Handel’s Messiah and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, which have toured the UK and Europe, and recently performed Bach’s Mass in B minor, under Bicket, for BBC Radio 3. 

Tom Williams is a conductor, singer, and educator, with a particular interest in the music of the Renaissance period. He read music at the University of Bristol and continued to postgraduate level, researching the Magnificat settings of the Franco-Flemish composer, Nicolas Gombert. He conducted the University’s celebrated vocal ensemble, The University Singers, during his time at Bristol, and founded the chamber choir, The Fitzhardinge Consort. He was a bass lay clerk at Bristol Cathedral between 2009 and 2013. Tom moved to London in 2013 to pursue a freelance conducting career but maintains a close relationship with the South West. In October 2012 he formed the Erebus Ensemble there and a year later established the Clifton International Festival of Music with Richard Jeffrey-Gray. He continues to act as the festival’s Artistic Director and has attracted some of the biggest names in classical music to perform at the annual event; these include The Tallis Scholars, The Sixteen, I Fagiolini, The Ayoub Sisters, Figo Baroque, Dame Gillian Weir and Crispian Steele-Perkins. 

He is currently Assistant Director of Music at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, where he is responsible for conducting the choir at the Sunday liturgies and for the Church’s major festivals. He also acts as a mentor for the Choral Scholars at St Martin’s and works with them in services, workshops, and concerts throughout the year. 

He has conducted religious broadcasts and concert performances for the BBC, Classic FM, and French Radio, and given workshops across the UK and in France and Holland. Tom is passionate about multi-discipline performance and has curated and directed programmes for the Royal Collection of Leonardo Da Vinci sketches for the Bristol Museum and Gallery (with The Fitzhardinge Consort), and the Angel Trail series at the National Gallery (with the Choir of St Martin-in-the-Fields). He has collaborated with the celebrated theatre director, Tom Morris, on many occasions and has staged Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Handel’s Messiah with Morris, conductor Harry Bicket and the English Concert in recent years. He recently collaborated on a revision of the Messiah production, which ran for four performances at the Bristol Old Vic, toured to Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall and Cambridgeshire’s Saffron Hall, and was shown in cinemas nationwide. 

When not waving his arms, Tom is a keen speaker on music and has given lectures on subjects ranging from the use of allegory in the Eton Choirbook collection to the Tintinnabuli style of Arvo Pärt. Outside of music, he is passionate about Welsh Rugby and English Cricket, enjoys reading theology and listening to opera, and balances a great love for tea and real ale (at the appropriate ends of the day). 

Marketing and Press

This new collection will be fully serviced to all UK press and Media. Review copies (or access to the digital files) can be requested from john@musicandmediaconsulting.com – interviews with Tom Williams can be quickly arranged if required. 

Advertising will include appropriate publications.