9 Lessons and Candles

Posted on January 14, 2018 by vhk10

Most 9 Lessons and Carols services are not lit by candles held by the congregation, the reason being that it is hard work keeping one alight for nearly two hours (in practice they have to be lit a little before the service begins and a full 9 Lessons and Carols lasts over an hour and a half). This year’s service in St David’s Cathedral was candle-lit (I believe last year’s wasn’t, although that may have been because I wasn’t in the nave then) and I just about kept mine alight until the final Hark the Herald, no mean feat when I was in a side aisle with a draught coming from somewhere behind me, and the best anyone in my block of seats managed. I could have got by without a candle for most of the service, though not for the Welsh translation of O Little Town of Bethlehem.

My location was also near a rather noise box of electrics which hummed increasingly loudly as the service went on, on a B so one just had to hope that the music was in G or another compatible key. Most of the choir music was familiar to me, although I didn’t know Mack Wilberg’s arrangement of Ding dong! merrily on high. I’m afraid that as last year the electrical interference was distracting but the choir seemed to be singing well.

I also got to Midnight Mass and the morning Eucharist on Christmas Day, which gave opportunities to admire the improvisations of Simon Pearce, the long-standing organist at St David’s. We had the Missa ad Praesepe again and on Christmas Day Haydn’s Little Organ Mass.

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a change from Messiah

Posted on January 12, 2018 by vhk10

This year Bristol Choral Society didn’t do Messiah, but put on a programme called ‘An English Christmas’. I was glad of the change as, apart from the anthems we sing in church and bits of carol singing, I don’t get to do any Christmas repertoire these days. In particular, this concert ended with Vaughan Williams Fantasia on Christmas Carols, which somehow I’ve managed never to sing before, though I have heard it countless times, which made it straightforward to learn.

The concert opened with another fantasia, Christmas Day by Holst, unknown to me and I felt rather more contrived than Vaughan Williams’ piece. Both date from the years just before the First World War, a time when a lot of composers were writing rather fruitlessly about ‘peace on earth’ (Schoenberg’s Friede auf Erden comes to mind.)

The rest of the first half was the SATB version of Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, which I did once in the Pump Room with the Chantry Singers (and later, in part, with Exultate Singers). Another very familiar piece, ingrained now because I did the first seven movements as a set work for O-level Music. The arrangement is careful, though occasionally the tenors and basses are left without much to do, and I’m puzzled that That yongë child is no longer a solo. (As with In Freezing Winter Night, my favourite movement, I feel that this is where Britten is here really writing in his own voice rather than striving to be tuneful.)

We also began the second half with Holst, his arrangement of Psalm 148 which I hadn’t come across before (we didn’t do its partner, psalm 86). Then Finzi’s In Terra Pax. I was one of only a handful in the choir who had sung this before – my chamber-choir background showing up again, I suppose. It’s a piece I can’t sing without remembering the first time I did it, with Janet (RIP) doing the soprano solo.

We were fortunate to have Anne Denholm, harpist to the Prince of Wales, with us again. Our vocal soloists were Gwen Martin and René Bloice-Sanders and orchestral accompaniment was supplied by the Bristol Ensemble. We had a new (to me) arrangement of singers, with tenors and basses brought further forward, with some sopranos and altos behind them.

We don’t have a monopoly on the last usable Saturday before Christmas and were in competition with a number of other carol concerts in Bristol, in particular ‘Carols by Candlelight’ at the Cathedral, which has not happened on the Saturday in previous years.

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BLOOD on my back

Posted on December 31, 2017 by vhk10

Not as bad as it sounds. Some of our church choir were part of a group singing carols at Sainsbury’s in Chippenham in aid of the Freewheelers, popularly known as the ‘Blood Bikes’, volunteer bikers who transport blood supplies to where they are needed. We wore high-viz waistcoats on loan from the Freewheelers, which had BLOOD written in big letters on the back. We raised about £500, which worked out at about £10 per minute of singing.

This was part of a busy December programme for our choir. We had an Advent carol service at church (and, later, a Christmas carol service, but I didn’t sing in that). We also sang at a carol service in the atrium of the local hospital, at the invitation of one of the chaplains there. People wandered past trailing their drips, sat in the café in front and knitted, and a good many joined in all or part of the service.

A week before Christmas a few of us (and a Spanish water dog) went round the local streets of Sion Hill carol singing. Now I’ve done these streets a few times I have some idea which houses will give us a welcome. We were particularly appreciated by some visiting New Yorkers (who videoed us on their phones, presumably to beam back to NYC) and the Christmas party of a Bible study group from Bath Abbey.

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Observing St Cecilia

Posted on December 10, 2017 by vhk10

St Cecilia’s Day at church was marked (I think the schedule was unintentional though) with a concert by the Bath Community Big Band, in which a couple of choir members play. I’m not an expert in this area but I enjoyed the part of the concert that I was able to get to, applauded at the right places (I think) and even recognised quite a lot of the tunes.

At the weekend we got tickets to Bath Minerva Choir’s all-Purcell concert at St Swithin’s Church, thanks to a connexion with the sponsor.

The first half of the concert contained 3 familiar verse anthems: Rejoice in the Lord alway (sung at our wedding), Jehovah quam multi sunt hostes mei (last encountered when I sang it at the Proms) and O sing unto the Lord. In between these was a suite from Abdelazer for string orchestra. Some years ago I was told that a London-based musicologist specialising in this area believed that some of the incidental music published under Purcell’s name was in fact written by his pupils or co-workers, and I’d be interested to hear further evidence or opinions about this. Certainly the quality of pieces in this suite seemed to vary. After the interval was the ode Hail Bright Cecilia, a piece which I sang once for Judy Martin in my Cambridge days.

We thought Simon Ponsford, a counter-tenor from Westminster Abbey, was the pick of the soloists. The choir seemed to be enjoying themselves and it doesn’t appear to have been an arduous programme for them to prepare. The orchestra was Canzona, not to be confused with local choir CanZona.

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I had that Barry Rose in the back of my congregation once….

Posted on December 4, 2017 by vhk10

This happened to me once before, quite recently. This time the occasion was a memorial service at church for Martin, who sang in the choir until a couple of years ago. Martin was musically well connected (he’d been a recording engineer and worked in broadcasting, as well as singing in choirs) and both choir and congregation were swelled by people he’d known in that capacity.

I realise I didn’t overlap with him for very long in our choir – only for a couple of years before illness began to make his appearances less frequent. The music had been proposed by Martin himself and included Purcell’s Remember not O Lord our offences as well as anthems by Bainton (which I sang to Barry Rose last time, too) and Harris, so something for various different tastes.

I hope that will be the last funeral/memorial event of 2017. I have been involved in six, including two family ones, which is more than enough for one year.

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Bath Mozartfest 2017

Posted on December 1, 2017 by vhk10

We didn’t do much about getting tickets in advance, partly because there were lots of good concerts and we were happy with almost anything that didn’t sell out.

Imogen Cooper is a regular here, though it was a little surprising more didn’t come along to her recital in the Assembly Rooms. (It was good to see that these were used for several concerts – in recent Festivals they have been sidelined. A difficulty with booking that has gone away?)

She opened with Beethoven’s Bagatelles Op 33 (I played one of these at a concert when I was at school), followed by Haydn’s sonata in C minor H XVI:20, one of the more familiar of his sonatas. After the interval came Beethoven’s variations on La Stessa, la stessissima (a relatively early work), Schubert’s Klavierstück D946 no 2 (a late work and another unfamiliar piece; the first is far the most often played of this set of three) and Beethoven’s Op 110 piano sonata. I last heard this sonata in the same place a few months ago, played by Richard Goode so direct comparisions could be made. Imogen Cooper was a pupil of Alfred Brendel and so we heard his influence in her precise placing of each note.

The annual bag of Mozartkügels was purchased in the interval.

Later in the week we went to the Leonore Piano Trio in the Guildhall. Their academic approach meant they were rather happier in Mozart’s K502 than in Dvořák’s Op. 62. We liked the cellist in particular though she was rather disconcerting to watch.

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Cheerful Mahler: dodging cymbals in the 2nd Symphony

Posted on November 26, 2017 by vhk10

I’ve almost lost count of the times I’ve passed up opportunities to sing Mahler 2. When I first came to Bath I was invited (via the Chantry Singers) to sing it in the Bath Phil’s Mahler cycle, but I declined – I can’t think why, except that in those days I rather scorned large choruses. A few years ago I could have sung it in Oxford, but rehearsals were awkward. More recently I was invited to do it in Tewkesbury (or was it Worcester?). There were four 2-hour rehearsals in Worcester before the day, which struck me as excessive. Having now sung the piece, I see that there is a lot of subtlety packed into the short chorus part, with its frequent changes of tempo and dynamics. But even so, this much rehearsal seems hard to justify – unless the conductor had very little confidence in his chorus, in which case I was probably best out of it.

This performance was with Eugene Monteith and the Bath Symphony Orchestra. It was my second time performing in the Forum. This time the temperature was more bearable, perhaps because it was late autumn. But the sight lines are still poor. I was in the front row where I often am – directly behind the percussion. Because I was standing on the stage, I had to peer round the cymbals whenever they were used during the chorus section if I wanted to see the conductor. I got a rather percussion-heavy account of the earlier part of the symphony too (how many other works involve such a long wait for the chorus?).

This concert marked the opening of the orchestra’s 50th anniversary season and we had a very appreciative audience. It marks a significant moment in my choral singing career too. It is now genuinely hard to think of an outstanding choral work that I have never performed. The bucket list now consists of works of the likes of The Seasons, The Apostles, The Bells, assorted Handel oratorios and Haydn Masses, and, staying with this composer, the brief soprano chorus in Mahler 3.

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how to commemorate 370 people

Posted on November 20, 2017 by vhk10

I sang Fauré’s Requiem at an All Souls’ Day service and was told afterwards that some 370 of the faithful departed had been commemorated by name at it. All Souls’ Day does seem to have caught on in the Church of England in recent years, at least round here. My usual church had a service for the first time that I can remember, and clearly people felt a need to add names in quantity to the list that was read out.

I notice that 9 years ago I was already running out of things to say about Fauré’s Requiem in this blog, but I can at least reflect on its popularity. I’ve sung it half a dozen times on November 2nd in this church, the first time being in 1999, and almost always with the same soloists and most of the same singers. It is very familiar to most choral singers and the organ part as far as I can tell is not hugely demanding, and there aren’t actually so many really high quality pieces of which this can be said. No wonder it is popular. (We used way back to sing the Duruflé Requiem at All Souls as well, and the mystery of the missing copies seems to have been resolved. They were on long-term loan from a local school, but were eventually returned to it.)

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hearing your own choir

Posted on November 16, 2017 by vhk10

I dashed over to Colston Hall from Wells to Bristol Choral Society’s concert. I didn’t arrive in time for the first half (Schumann Lieder) but went for the second half – Brahms’ German Requiem.

I had had a nasty cough so I think I was not a great loss to this concert as I doubt that I could have coped with Brahms’ strenuous vocal demands. The soprano section sounded good and in fact all parts of the choir were confident and in tune, so I didn’t feel guilty about not being in the choir for this one. And the choir’s ensemble (which it is hard to judge if you are in it) was impressive, including the consonants! And people were looking up at the conductor. A fair few of us would have sung in the choir’s last performance of this work five years ago (the term I joined – I wasn’t able to sing in that performance either). A curious feature of Colston Hall’s acoustics was that from the right of the stalls I could have sworn it was the alto section on the left of the choir, were it not that I could see it was the first sopranos.

It is rather strange listening to your own choir as you feel that you are in the wrong place. Also that you are still somehow on duty as you will be expected to provide feedback for the benefit of the choir.

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a rub from Pangur

Posted on November 11, 2017 by vhk10

This autumn seems relatively empty musically. I think this is partly in comparison with last autumn which was exceptionally busy, with three concerts over and above what I’d usually do. By contrast, this year there is one event fewer, because of a clash of dates, and this comes after missing the Cathedral Chamber Choir’s trip to Lincoln in August.

After 10 years (the last visit was just before the new song room opened) the Erleigh Cantors came back to Wells, for my second weekend of the year in the Cathedral. While rehearsing in the Nave choir stalls I got a friendly rub round the legs from Pangur the cat (I think it was he rather than Louis) and it was lovely to see David, my former College Chaplain.

We brought quite a lot of pieces which were new to me. No early music this time (giving it a rest after all the Josquin at St David’s). Our Eucharist setting was Howard Goodall’s Missa Aedis Christi. The recording of this is misleading, as the Mass was revised afterwards, possibly to make it shorter (although it’s still pretty expansive).

Our Sunday evening anthem was Richard Shephard’s And when the builders, written for the Friends of Salisbury Cathedral – hence perhaps the text The silver is thine and the gold is thine for this fund-raising group! A lot of time-signature changes and apparently awkward leads which fell into place with the organ accompaniment.

There were also a couple of pieces I’d only done once before. I have rather unhappy memories of Vaughan Williams’ O vos omnes because the only other time I’ve ever sung it, it went very flat almost at once and then I couldn’t pitch my notes. This performance had no such problems. The piece seems to be (undeservedly) very little known; it’s not listed in the Wikipedia list of VW’s works.

I do enjoy Walton’s Jubilate, which we sang at Matins (I was the middle of the 3 upper-voice verse parts). A further challenge was Anthony Piccolo’s Responses, a tricky setting which I hadn’t sung for a few years. We also fitted in music by Rutter, Sumsion, Elgar (The Spirit of the Lord), Naylor and Dyson!

After Saturday evening, I dashed over to Bristol to hear Bristol Choral Society’s concert, but that must wait for the next post.

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Constructivism but no umbrellas

Posted on October 25, 2017 by vhk10

Suddenly realising that we were on the point of missing WNO’s Khovanshchina performances altogether, we grabbed tickets, leapt in the car and drove off to Cardiff to see it (as often with more ambitious repertoire, it wasn’t coming to Bristol).

Was any operatic character so much on a hiding to nothing as Marfa? She is clearly getting nowhere with Andrei Khovansky, threatened with death by Golitsyn (though I thought they might have made quite a good couple) and derided by other Old Believers, whom she joins just in time for them all to commit mass suicide. Her real function seems to be to hold together the various parts of a very diffuse plot. In this thankless role we had the spirited Sara Fulgoni. Mark le Brocq, with whom I used to sing in Cambridge choirs played Golitsyn (why is it he always seems to play plonkers?). The orchestra thrillingly brought to life Shostakovich’s completion of the score, conducted by Tomáš Hanus.

The sets had a vaguely Soviet look, (Golitsyn was carried off into exile in a frame which had previously held a Constructivist-looking painting) and despite being Pountney I saw no umbrellas. The whole stage ended up being rather cluttered, with characters having to dodge bric-a-brac left over from earlier scenes. In the final scene the funeral pyres resembled nothing so much as those outdoor heaters you get in pub gardens, though to be fair, I don’t think those were commonplace when this production was new. There was the usual (for WNO) superb use of lighting. And they no longer seem to have problems now disposing the chorus around the stage.

It is a confusing opera if you aren’t familiar with that bit of Russian history, and possibly if you are. Probably no production can really solve all its problems, but we are glad that we went to this one.

Reviews:

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Gloomy Mahler (2) – Kindertotenlieder

Posted on October 13, 2017 by vhk10

The Bath Philharmonia and Jason Thornton brought Mahler back to St Swithin’s Church. For the conductor, Jason Thornton, this marked the point at which he had conducted all of Mahler’s orchestral works

We had Mahler’s orchestration for strings of the first movement of Schubert’s Death and the Maiden quartet. It’s hard to see quite what Mahler had to add or rearrange, apart from finding something for the double basses to do (they doubled the cellos from time to time and added reinforcing pizzicatos).

This was followed by a sensitive performance of Kindertotenlieder (in the chamber arrangement by Rainer Riehn) given by Gavin Carr. In the orchestra, I was particularly impressed by the woodwind playing. The second half Gavin was joined by Gemma Roper as soloists in Fauré’s Requiem with Cantilena (the local authority youth choir). A good preparation for my singing the piece myself in November; it was hard to imagine that the choir rarely sang with an orchestra.

The concert was well attended (a good audience of parents etc. is more or less guaranteed when you have a lot of young people performing). I sat in the side gallery, where the sideways view of the performers is blocked by pillars; one member of the audience stood up throughout in order to see them. Not for the first time, I wondered why the audience couldn’t use the West part of the gallery, which has no such impeded view. In fact some relatives of one of the soloists were seated there, so what was the reason for excluding others in the audience? I also reflected rather sadly on the absence of an organ in this church – you can see the space where it used to be.

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