The thirteen members of Stile Antico filed in one by one. They were solemn, pale, and, given the centuries-old music they were about to sing, improbably young. Wearing mismatched black, the members of the British early music ensemble arranged themselves in a loose semicircle against a deep-blue screen.
There was a beat of silence.
And that was the extent of the theatrics. For the rest of the night, Stile Antico buckled down to the business of singing. It was a business they knew well. Like a baker's dozen employees of the month, they were punctual in their musical arrivals, punctilious in their diction. They were ideal team members, blending selflessly, trading melodies with earnestness and vigor. And if the group's approach occasionally strayed close to workmanlike, their product, an evening of sumptuous Tudor choral music, was worth it.
"Puer Natus Est," an expansive mass by Thomas Tallis, received star billing on Stile Antico's Wednesday night concert at the Modlin Center for the Arts. The billing was well-deserved: Despite a self-devised numerological constraint in which the lengths of notes corresponded to particular vowels, Tallis produced a ripe, glowing work with an almost tidal pull. Stile Antico made light work of the heavy textures, each of the seven parts gliding seamlessly in and out of the whole.
Even more enjoyable were four "Propers" by William Byrd. Byrd, a Catholic, composed the works for the religious use of England's embattled Catholic nobility. The Propers were short yet vivid, full of color changes and sparkling shifts. They were the liveliest offering on the program, and Stile Antico delivered them with commitment and zest.
When Stile Antico was good, they were very, very good. And when they were bad, they were … still awfully good. The most successful offerings were nothing short of marvelous, as if a wonderful new organism had opened its mouth and delivered a plural aria.
The lighting — stark shifts of hue at the beginning of each piece — waffled between innocuous and distracting. It was not, after all, a light show — though in the end, perhaps it was. At its finest, Stile Antico's ensemble was glittering, its texture lustrous. Close to the darkest time of the year, it was welcome light.
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