The final concert of Bristol Choral Society’s season, in the Cathedral, was largely music connected to Bristol. (Incidentally I had my triennial audition, and can continue to sing.)
Bristol does not feature very largely on the map of British composers. Our concert had something in common with a rather similar one I once performed in with the Brandon Hill Singers in St. Mary Redcliffe: a substantial work by Samuel Wesley. This time it was Exultate Deo, which blossomed when given space in the generous Cathedral acoustic. (I don’t think I’d have wanted to have met Samuel Wesley, and I think he might well have been in trouble with Operation Yewtree had he lived closer to our own time). The evening opened with a zippy setting of Psalm 150 by David Bednall, who accompanied, and later played an improvisation. We sang the rather pleasant opening of Pearsall’s Requiem mass, a work which perhaps deserves rather more exposure as it would be a useful standby for church choirs; I’d never even heard of it. One piece had a more personal connexion, Raymond Warren’s A new thing, as I was at university with his daughter and am still in occasional contact; it was also written for and dedicated to a member of the choir. The half ended with a warhorse of cathedral music, O how glorious is the kingdom by Harwood.
The second half featured Vaughan Williams – folk-song arrangements, ‘Linden Lea’ and Julia Hwang playing The Lark Ascending, with piano accompaniment. We ended with three items from the ‘Encores for Choirs’ book: Good Hope which combines words from various African languages (clicks and all), a 3-minute condensed version of the Messiah and finally an arrangement of ‘Every time I feel the Spirit’.