When the singers of Voces8 start singing, you can’t help but sit dead still and listen ★★★★☆

Hardly a sigh can be heard, it is so quiet in the Concert Hall in Tilburg on Friday evening. It is the first concert of a total of seven (with different programs) that the British vocal ensemble Voces8 will give in the country this week. In Tilburg, the ensemble mainly combines British and American music from the early 20th century and today, accompanied by four string players from the Tilburg string ensemble Kamerata Zuid and harpist Doriene Marselje.

Voces8 is known for its crystal clear tone. The ultimate control of the singers has an enchanting effect; when they start singing, you can’t help but sit dead still and listen. Friday night’s ethereal music only enhances that tranquil effect, like the impressionistic one Three Shakespeare Songs by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958). In this, the eight singers pile up the thin overtones of church bells and let Debussy-like intervals slide subduedly.

The popular, originally instrumental piece The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams, inspired by George Meredith’s poetic hymn to a soaring lark, can be heard in British composer Paul Drayton’s 2019 vocal arrangement. Voces8 shows how well their voices do the piece. Smooth and polished, the group sings the stream of sounds, which has free rein wordlessly. With words, a number of lines from the poem, it then becomes a lovely, pastoral choral song.

In the end, the strings sadly color the singers in Samuel Barbers Adagio for Strings. The original string quartet version is combined with the choral work, Agnus Dei, which the composer himself arranged from the orchestral version. With their tight harmony vocals, the musicians lift the audience in Tilburg. Once with both feet on the ground, it starts to clap frantically.