So they turned to the director, filmmaker, designer and choreographer Mark DeChiazza, whom they had met while collaborating on a pair of operas by Jonathan Berger at Stanford University. "We wanted something iconic but definitely not narrative - something more like an art installation," Phillips continues. But with the piece's already elegiac text - taken from "Evening Hymn" by the 17th-century author Sir Thomas Browne - the quartet, Phillips says, was concerned that in the wake of Bennett's death, the result "might be something exploitative, or sentimental, or obvious." The group decided that they needed to find an innovative way to introduce "Colloquy," and thought that a video, which is still a rare medium for classical music, would be a fitting tribute. "Colloquy" was one of Bennett's last works, if not the last. They never had the chance: Bennett died Christmas Eve 2012 at age 76. "Two days later," Phillips says, "a scan of a handwritten score arrived in our email inbox."Īfter premiering the work in Canada, the group planned to give the incandescently beautiful "Colloquy" its American premiere in New York in January of this year with the New York-based composer in attendance. He was very kind and offered to work with us."Īs pleased as they were, the quartet was astonished by what happened next. But we invited him to come hear us sing at Miller Theatre here in New York in January 2012, and he came. "We always wanted to work with him, but we never had the nerve to ask. "We loved Sir Richard's work," Phillips says. The piece that the foursome of countertenor Geoffrey Williams, tenor Steven Caldicott Wilson, baritone Christopher Dylan Herbert and bass Craig Phillips selected for their video, "A Colloquy with God" by English composer Richard Rodney Bennett, has a very particular - and haunting - story behind it. The vocal quartet New York Polyphony delights in surprises - whether it's a matter of singing some rather raunchy Italian madrigals or making a video to introduce their album Times Go By Turns (released on BIS Aug.
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