as I said to the ondiste …

There are about 20 such people, and I got the chance to meet one of them during the Chorus Angelorum’s trip to Turin to perform Messiaen’s Trois Petites Liturgies de la Présence Divine. The ondes Martenot is an instrument which really needs to be heard live; on recordings and broadcasts it occasionally reminds me of a swanee whistle. During a break in rehearsal we were given a short demonstration (the ondiste must do this every time she performs) of how it is played.

The performance was part of a concert to mark 50 years since the priesting of the archbishop of Turin. This being Italy, it was held in the opera house with the house orchestra. (It was also the case that much of the cathedral was in restauro). I’m told there was a fair sprinkling of nuns in the audience.

When I first saw the music I felt that I might need a genetic transplant from Joanna MacGregor, but it resolved itself with practice. As it’s almost entirely sung in unison, there’s nowhere to hide. There is a lot of repetition, generally with changes only in the words. (There’s nowhere one is so likely to make a mistake as in the phrase which subtly varies something which occurs elsewhere).

We stayed in the Hotel Nazionale, which according to the guidebook was a location for the horror film Profondo Rosso. We had some free time to explore the city including the Mole Antonelliana which was obviously designed by a megalomaniac but afforded good views of the city and nearby mountains. I’m not at my best in all-female company but it was a success socially too. It was my first overseas singing trip since a choir tour of Paris when I was a student.

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4 Responses to as I said to the ondiste …

  1. Jocelyn Lavin says:

    Damon Albarn has apparently just discovered the ondes martenot, and has featured it in his Monkey Opera, which I’m off to see tomorrow.

  2. vhk says:

    Our ondiste told us that there are over a thousand works featuring the instrument. The world’s twenty players will be busy during Messiaen’s centenary next year.

    Good to hear from you. I hope the Manchester Cathedral Cantata Choir is still flourishing!

  3. Jocelyn Lavin says:

    I hear it folded a couple of years ago, but I left it long before that. I’m the Hallé one 🙂

  4. vhk says:

    I’m sorry to hear the Cantata Choir has gone, as I have happy memories of it. And in my time it had a hard core of singers in all voices who looked as if they would never leave. But there was an excess of largish (100 members or so) choirs in Manchester in the 1990’s, and a great shortage of smaller ones. If Cantata has been replaced by more chamber choirs, that might be a good thing.

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