Requiem (1): Fauré

Posted on November 13, 2008 by vhk10

This year we did the Fauré Requiem again for All Souls. This is the third time in the lifetime of this blog that I’ve performed this piece so I’m beginning to run out of things to say about it. There was one difference in this particular performance: I sang the Pie Jesu. Although I learnt this a long time ago, this was the first time I’d performed it. It has a particular difficulty you get also in some of Fauré’s songs: a lot of continuous singing without any significant break. I think my anecdote about the restaurant in York and the Libera Me will have to wait for another time, as I have a backlog of things to write about.

Just time to mention that my husband went to the ENO Aida in London. This is designed by Zandra Rhodes, something which he felt you weren’t allowed to forget! In that it resembles the Magic Flute I went to at the Met in New York a couple of years ago. But he was reasonably happy with the singing.

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hungry at the Wigmore Hall

Posted on November 5, 2008 by vhk10

After singing at St. Paul’s, I decided to go to Florilegium’s all-Bach programme at the Wigmore Hall. I haven’t been to a concert there for a few years, and the building has been refurbished in the meantime. One change (which I’m told is more recent than the refurbishment) is that the cafeteria which used to adjoin one of the bars has now been replaced by a restaurant with waitress service. You are asked to place your order at least half an hour before the performance starts, and I arrived in time to do this. However I failed to catch the attention of any of the staff (although others arriving after me succeeded). Perhaps table 24 is ‘starvation corner’ or maybe a woman on her own is just not as lucrative for the restaurant as a man or a party.

The concert itself was enjoyable, though nothing really stood out for me. The programme was built around a complete performance of the Musical Offering, something I learnt about in detail for A-level (along with Bach’s other major works) but which I haven’t paid much attention to since. Probably the part I know best is the Ricercar – in the arrangement by Webern! I wasn’t totally convinced by the combination of cello and viola da gamba in some parts, but I’m not an early music expert so I’m willing to be persuaded that that is how it should be.

I returned home in reasonable time to find a hot supper waiting for me, and will look out for other places to eat nearby on a future visit.

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the Gloucester Service in St. Paul’s

Posted on November 3, 2008 by vhk10

The following day I was off to London where the Erleigh Cantors were hitting the big time: St. Paul’s Cathedral. This was the first time this choir had sung there; I have previously been with a couple of other choirs, though not within the lifetime of this blog. As it happens, on my last visit (with the Cathedral Chamber Choir) I sang canticles by Howells and an anthem by Bairstow, and this happened again. I suppose the big acoustic suits these composers.

As at Worcester, we arrived shortly before major organ work was to be dedicated and the new work wasn’t totally ready. Our organist got to try out the Cathedral’s new toy – a movable console – but it was located under the dome and behind the conductor’s shoulder which wasn’t the easiest place for contact and the resulting ensemble. The choir stalls are famously far apart, though I couldn’t decide whether they are actually as far from one another as at, say, Lincoln. Or are they much further apart and the size of the building creates the illusion that they are closer than they really are?

I sang Howells’ Gloucester Service again, but first soprano this time so there was some variety. The anthem was Bairstow’s Lord, Thou has been our refuge which is the kind of anthem that can only really be done in cathedral services because of its length. Just as you think it’s reached its climax, another section unfolds. At any rate, I don’t think it started any wars. The service music also included the Sanders responses and a Richard Marlow psalm-chant which was freely based on O for the wings of a dove.

The Cathedral staff made sure that we slotted into the physical and time spaces where the choir was expected to be; I got the impression of being a replacement part in a complex mechanism. (As opposed to the approaches of many other cathedrals: leaving you to your own devices, finding space for you only after everything else has been accommodated, or regarding you as a positive nuisance!)

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the Gloucester Service in Wells

Posted on November 3, 2008 by vhk10

I made it to the final Priory Voices weekend of the year, at Wells Cathedral.  Strangely enough, this was the first time I’d ever done a full weekend of services in Wells, which has been my local cathedral for over a decade.  It’s either been Good Friday concerts with the Bath Camerata or isolated services (and only two of the latter!)

Last time I sang was just before the new rehearsal rooms opened, but this time we were able to use one.  They are a great improvement and very handsome, although still rather lacking in all the choir notices and memorabilia that give many of these rooms their character.

As it turned out, much of the music was pieces I’d recently performed with other groups.  As a result there weren’t really musical high points, though we had lots of stuff by quality composers such as the Byrd 4-part Mass, Howells’ Gloucester Service, Morales’ O Sacrum Convivium, Stanford in C and Brahms’ Geistliches Lied.  There were also some nicely chosen chants, though if I’d turned up to Saturday evensong and got only 6 verses of psalmody, I’d have felt seriously short-changed.  As Ps. 119 comes in 8-verse chunks, I wonder whether it should have been 16?

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some new musical angels

Posted on October 24, 2008 by vhk10

I haven’t sung an evensong in Bath Abbey for quite a while now, but joined a visiting choir for one last Saturday. (This choir was the combined forces of two churches in the Reading area, with significant overlap with the Erleigh Cantors).

This was the first time I’d sung in the choir stalls since various changes were made to them. Some handsome wooden and glazed screens now stand behind the stalls on either side, intended to make it easier to hear the singers on the other side of the quire (a notorious problem at Bath) and to help the sound to project down the nave rather than be dispersed in the transepts. Having now sung in the choir stalls as well as being in the congregation at other services, I have to say that I don’t think they succeed in doing either of these things. I’m not sure what could be done instead, short of blocking off the transepts altogether. Bath Abbey’s own choirs of course are used to the acoustic and experienced at getting round its problems.

A row of sculptures of angels playing musical instruments has been placed near the top of each of these screens. These are best seen from the choir stalls opposite, and I suspect have been designed with that view in mind, rather than as they appear from further down the nave. They still look a bit large for their location.

The music we sang included Noble in B minor and I was Glad by Parry. We had quite a reasonable congregation, though I suspect mostly of the choir’s supporters.

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Duruflé’s Requiem copies in Bath

Posted on October 20, 2008 by vhk10

It’s the time of year when church choirs dust off their scores of Requiem Masses, and for us it brings round the sad thought that we can no longer sing Duruflé’s Requiem, because a few years ago our copies were borrowed or purloined, and not returned.

As I know quite a few singers in the Bath area read my blog, I’m using it to make an appeal. If your choir library has Bathwick copies of Duruflé’s Requiem, or you find yourself singing from a Bathwick copy of Duruflé’s Requiem, could you get the set of vocal scores returned to us? No questions will be asked about where they have been, and the scores can be returned anonymously, for example by slipping into one of the Bathwick churches during a service and leaving them at the back of the church. (Service times here and here). I know no choir would want knowingly to keep music in its library which really belonged elsewhere.

Less importantly (I think) the St. John’s Bathwick set of Wood in the Fridge (sorry, Charles Wood’s communion setting in the Phrygian Mode) has also been missing for a few years, and it would be nice to have that back too. We’re confident that these scores haven’t simply migrated from one of the two churches in the parish to the other.

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Vaughan Williams day

Posted on October 14, 2008 by vhk10

I didn’t get to my usual church last Sunday, but the VW anniversary was well observed at Christ Church Julian Road; we sang ‘Down Ampney’ at the morning service, and in the evening there was a concert entirely of his music. I would have liked to have joined the choir for this, but a rehearsal elsewhere meant I couldn’t, and I only caught the final half of the programme, which included the Serenade to Music and Five Mystical Songs. Congratulations to all involved. I ought to add the Serenade to my wishlist.

Coming up:
my first evensong in the new stalls at Bath Abbey
my first ever weekend of services in Wells Cathedral
evensong at St. Paul’s Cathedral
Britten’s War Requiem

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one-piece composers

Posted on October 14, 2008 by vhk10

After evensong for dedication festival we had an organ recital where requests were played. One piece was Pachelbel’s Ciacona in D minor, which set me thinking that it is unfair that Pachelbel is thought of as a one-piece composer, as it was just as good as his more famous Canon. And what other worthwhile music is there by other ‘one-piece’ composers?

(Incidentally, if you want to hear Pachelbel’s Canon played in lots of different temperaments, some deeply warped, try this page).

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taking the Episcopalian

Posted on October 8, 2008 by vhk10

I’ve enjoyed reading the site of this name but I’m going to use this post to applaud St. Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Edinburgh. On a weekend visit to Edinburgh last month I wondered whether to go along there on the Sunday. I rang their office out of hours on Saturday night, hoping their answerphone message might tell me service times. Not only did it do that, but I was told which service settings would be used for Eucharist and Evensong. I accordingly went along to the morning Eucharist to hear Vaughan Williams’ Mass in G minor.

I’m normally a bit better organised and look up service times on the internet before I travel so I don’t have to ring up, but I wonder whether many other Cathedrals do this?

One thing I’ve noticed and enjoyed on the broadcasts from this Cathedral is the full-blooded approach to playing the hymns, including office hymns at evensong. The introit hymn at this service was the first time in a long while, perhaps ever, that I have been unable to hear myself singing when in the congregation (in a choir this is much commoner, depending on the piece, the acoustic, the singers and the way they are arranged).

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Bristol Temple Meads to the Royal Albert Hall in under 2 hours

Posted on October 1, 2008 by vhk10

We proved that this could be done (just!) on our way to Prom 62; the train we should have been on was cancelled and the next one left very little margin as we sprinted across Hyde Park.

However we arrived in time to hear Nikolaj Znaider perform Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the ECYO under Colin Davis (not long since my daughter last heard him conduct). This performance was definitely on the expansive side, and sometimes the soloist’s tone was a bit too restrained for my taste, but we definitely approved. The orchestra really got a chance to shine in Sibelius’ second symphony after the interval. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a symphony by Sibelius live before (probably because being married to a fan of his music I get plenty of it at home).

Earlier my husband took my daughter to Prom 58, with Lorin Maazel and the New York Philharmonic. This was also a success, although the brass got rather the upper hand in places, especially in Bartok’s Miraculous Mandarin suite; perhaps this is just the fault of the music.

The Guardian‘s reviews are here and here.

I would have liked to have gone to more Proms this year. Much of the programming appealed and the quality of the performances seems to have been uniformly high (unless there was a bad patch in early August which I missed).

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The Finance Act 2000 and choirs

Posted on September 26, 2008 by vhk10

There may not seem much of a link here, but there has been a trend over the last decade for choirs to register as charities. I attribute this at least in part to the Finance Act 2000, which liberalised the conditions under which donations could be augmented by Gift Aid. Choir subscriptions now bring in significantly more income, if you are a charity.

But there are some other consequences of such a change. Once the choir is a charity, it can no longer be the personal fiefdom of its musical director. They may continue to make the artistic decisions, but are accountable to a committee. Furthermore, charitable status depends on the affairs of the organisation (such as the administration of auditions and that of subscriptions) being in order. Certainly some experiences I’ve had in the past wouldn’t now happen under such a dispensation, or if they did it would be possible to appeal to the committee of the choir concerned and remind them of their charitable status. So I think this change is for the better. I should add that I’m involved with more than one choir which doesn’t have charitable status and which is run fairly!

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a return to Brinkburn Priory

Posted on September 25, 2008 by vhk10

The day after finishing at York I sang in Brinkburn Priory. This location has undergone a curious reversal; in the early nineteenth century the Priory church was roofless when a handsome manor house in Strawberry Hill Gothic style was built next door to it. Now the Priory is restored and usable, while the manor house is in a state of arrested dereliction, with the upper floors too unsafe to enter (where they still exist at all). You get the impression of somewhere where the money suddenly ran out.

I was at Brinkburn to sing in a short concert given by the Fitzsimons Choir, with whom I did a tour some years ago (which is when I sang in Newcastle Cathedral). Most of the pieces were familiar to me but there were a couple of new ones: a Tantum Ergo for women’s voices by Fauré and an anthem by Philip Riley, a member of the choir. It was quite a change singing with a small group after the very big turn-out at York.

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