Joby Talbot’s Path of Miracles / György Kurtág’s Kafka Fragments review – Bristol Proms reach for the heavenly

Tenebrae, Nigel Short / Anu Komsi and Sakari Oramo
St George’s Bristol / Bristol Beacon
Sunday afternoon’s two concerts, closing the Proms’ Bristol weekend, brought the superlative Tenebrae, and Sakari Oramo swapping baton for bow to duet with his wife

Ritual can be a choir in procession in a great cathedral or the simple act of putting down a violin bow. At the BBC Proms’ Bristol performances this weekend, it was both – and to strikingly different effect.

First, grandeur and spectacle, as Nigel Short and his chamber choir Tenebrae celebrated their 25th anniversary with a return to their 2005 commission: Joby Talbot’s Path of Miracles. Inspired by the Catholic pilgrimage to Santiago, it’s a piece with a cult following, a phenomenon as much as a score, and one that only comes to life fully in live performance.