At Shaughnessy Heights United Church on Saturday, May 30

For more than one thousand years, masochistic spiritual types have been undertaking an 800-kilometre pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain, where the remains of the apostle James are said to be buried.

This year, in celebration of its 25th anniversary, the Phoenix Chamber Choir took on no less challenging a task, programming the Canadian premiere of contemporary British composer Joby Talbot’s hourlong a cappella choral work Path of Miracles as its season ender. The piece, commissioned by professional British choir Tenebrae in 2005, depicts the four main staging posts of the Camino Francés—the most popular of the pilgrimage routes—using a variety of vocal techniques and effects, with a libretto in multiple languages.

Phoenix artistic director Ramona Luengen had reportedly been working with her amateur group for months in preparation for Saturday evening’s concert. Questions abounded: could the choir sustain the audience’s attention for the entirety of the 70-minute-long piece? And could the work really carry a whole program on its own?

Both questions were answered by Phoenix with a resounding yes. From the moment the choir slowly made its way to the front of the hall, the men intoning a thrumming drone, the audience’s focus was fixed. Soon, those tones began sliding upward, increasing in volume, overlapping one another and building to a terrifying climax in which the women joined to proclaim, to piercing effect, the Latin text of the pilgrim’s hymn from the Jacobean chant Dum pater familias.

This first movement, “Roncesvalles”—named for the main meeting place of the pilgrims, goes on to provide an abridged version of the life of Saint James, shifting through Greek, Latin, Spanish, Basque, French, English, and German. Imbued with anticipatory joy, it is soon tempered by the tired, trudging feel of the second movement, “Burgos”. Filled with pauses, hymnlike harmonies, and ostinato lines, here the text is filled with warnings against the devil and pleas to Saint James. Comfort comes in the third movement, “León”, which features shimmering, lilting soprano lines in praise of light and the sun, a homage to the León Cathedral, famed for its stained glass.

In the redemptive final movement, “Santiago”, tension builds and subsides through ecstatic repetition of musical lines and text. By this point in Phoenix’s performance, the singers were showing sings of wear: a few pitchy notes, some loss of rhythmic precision, and a slightly strained quality to the voices. But after they walked off-stage, lilting the final lines “Holy Saint James, great Saint James/God help us now and evermore,” they were greeted with a well-deserved and prolonged standing ovation. Like weary pilgrims, they had travelled far and long. The audience was grateful for the ride.