Pimm’s no. 3

Posted on December 18, 2006 by vhk10

That’s the ‘winter’ one, based on brandy. It was served (mixed with apple juice and warm) after our Advent carol service – the first time I’d tried it.

But I should be writing about music. We sang a mixture of standards (the Palestrina Matin Responsory), 20th-century pieces (Holst’s Ave Maria and Richard Lloyd’s setting of the Advent Prose) and newly edited Renaissance music (Canite Tuba by Guerrero and Gaudete omnes et lætamini by Sweelinck). These last two were new to me (as was the Lloyd), and are examples of the way the repertoire is expanding thanks to Handlo Music, the Choral Public Domain Library and similar outfits which make it easily available. I sang the Holst with the Exultate Singers a couple of years ago, doing the other 2nd choir soprano part (which explains why I keep being tempted to sing it).

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a concert on Second Avenue

Posted on December 5, 2006 by vhk10

No, I wasn’t back in New York, and strictly speaking it took place just off Second Avenue in Oldfield Park.

The introduction to Charpentier’s Te Deum is very well known to me from countless weddings and as the call signal for France Musique, but I’d never come across the rest of the piece. Much of Charpentier’s soprano writing tends to lie in an awkward part of my voice and when this is coupled with thin French vowels it becomes tricky for me to sing. The Latin got considerably modified – it wasn’t enough to try to sound like a francophone announcer on a Eurostar train – with some consonants omitted and some unvoiced ones become voiced.

Saint-Saëns’ Christmas Oratorio may not be a masterpiece, but at least it is possible to sing it with fervour. I think he must have realised that the work was in danger of being too anodyne; in the middle there is for no apparent reason a highly dramatic chorus of Quare fremuerunt gentes?, complete with a thunking top B flat for the sopranos, then it goes back to plaster-Madonna mode again.

The third part of the concert was a sequence of music associated with John Inwood, to whose memory the performance was dedicated. His taste must have been similar to mine in some ways, as it included parts of Tallis’ Lamentations, Rachmaninov’s Vespers and Victoria’s Requiem. Another new language for me: Estonian, in a performance of a piece by Kreek.

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Lætentur cœli – but not set by Byrd

Posted on November 28, 2006 by vhk10

This time the words come from Saint-Saëns’ Christmas Oratorio, which I’m singing on Saturday with the Chandos Singers.

Meanwhile, I sang at a concert of anthems with St. Mary’s Bathwick choir in Acton Turville, a place with a connexion to Stainer. I hope it came over well as the acoustic was difficult – I couldn’t really hear myself at all!

Now trying Eaton Hall School for somewhere to stay in Norwich next August. Two venues which have accommodated choirs in the past no longer do so.

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Mozartfest 2006

Posted on November 22, 2006 by vhk10

This came and went last week. I imagine it was financially a great success because many of the concerts sold out. In fact the piano recital by Alfred Brendel sold out as soon as postal booking opened, if not before (we posted an application in good time but didn’t get tickets). Perhaps people are worried he will retire from the platform soon and it’s their last chance to hear him.

Between us we attended three concerts. I went to the Nash Ensemble performing the Kegelstatt trio (a work I used to bash through with friends in my student days), the K593 string quintet, and Brahms’ clarinet quintet, which is where the evening really came alight for me. Other members of the family heard Tasmin Little and John Lenehan, and members of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, all warmly received. But with hundreds of (often elderly) people trooping into concerts in the Assembly Rooms in a short space of time, couldn’t the heavy swinging front doors be fixed open for the half-hour or so before a concert? As they would be at (say) the Wigmore Hall. There wasn’t so much heat to keep in, as the weather was mild all week.

I would usually post a link to a review in a national paper here but I don’t think any of them sent reviewers to the Mozartfest this year (did they feel they’d reviewed enough performances of Mozart in the anniversary year?)

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two disappointments

Posted on November 6, 2006 by vhk10

I was one of a number of people who turned up at Bath Abbey at 5 o’clock on Saturday to hear evensong sung by the Spectrum Singers. This was advertised on the Abbey’s website and on the lists of services outside, but nothing happened.

And finding somewhere for the Cathedral Chamber Choir to stay in Norwich next summer is proving difficult. Both Wensum Lodge (where we stayed last time) and Norwich City College (which seems to have been a standard place for visiting choirs) no longer have accommodation for visitors in the summer.

One thing that did happen was my All Souls’ Day outing – a Bathwick performance of Fauré’s Requiem.

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a chant by Verdi

Posted on November 6, 2006 by vhk10

Recently the Erleigh Cantors have been using some chants from Richard Marlow’s Trinity Chant-Book. These are mostly adapted from other works, by quoting a phrase or two rather than forcing a longer passage into a metrical straitjacket. They can be used to complement other works by these composers or from the same time and place.

Before I sang any of these I found this exercise almost pretentious – why weren’t the chants the rest of the world uses good enough for Trinity College, Cambridge? But in fact the ones I’ve sung are very pleasant to sing, and I particularly like the richness of the 5-part ones. (Of course you have to be able to split your soprano section 4 ways if you do Dec and Can with them).

Despite drawing on some 400 years of music these chants have a distinctive similarity of style which I attribute to Marlow himself. Rather like Trinity College Choir under his direction, which always sounded the same to me through many changes of personnel (several of whom I’ve known).

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At last! Lætentur Cœli!

Posted on October 27, 2006 by vhk10

The Erleigh Cantors were visiting Winchester Cathedral last weekend, arriving as the Knights of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre (Equestrian Division) were holding a service of their own in the Cathedral. This time, there was no music I hadn’t sung before, but some of it I hadn’t done for a long time, notably Byrd’s Lætentur Cœli, which I hadn’t sung since my first term at university. I’m not sure why it hasn’t come round since; it is quite long, but perhaps the real reason is the tricky exposed SAT section in the middle. Now I’ll wait for Purcell’s O Lord God of Hosts, which I haven’t sung in an equally long time.

When I first sang Górecki’s Totus Tuus a few years ago, I wasn’t very impressed, feeling that it can be learnt in less time than it takes to perform. While this is true (at least if you take it slowly enough), having heard broadcasts and now singing the piece again, I appreciate how carefully it is structured. But in order for it to work Górecki’s dynamic markings must be strictly observed. Mathias’ Let the people praise thee, O Lord also improved on re-acquaintance. There was one rarity: the Tunnard Responses, which I haven’t come across elsewhere, though I imagine they’re in the repertoire at Birmingham Cathedral as Tunnard was organist there.

A week later I was back in the same area at Romsey Abbey with many of the same people, to sing a Saturday Evensong. Romsey was my first trip with the Erleigh Cantors. It’s almost like a cathedral (it could just do with a bit more nave) and in fact Dec and Can are further apart than in many cathedrals. In some ways it’s a bit like singing in Bath Abbey, though the building is older. Most of the cafés in Romsey are closed by 4.30 on a Saturday, but the Florence restaurant in the Cornmarket was still open and served us tea before evensong.

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a service and a recital

Posted on October 23, 2006 by vhk10

On the Tuesday of my visit to New York, I felt in need of a reminder of the old country and went to a service of evensong at St. Thomas’ Fifth Avenue, a church known to me from BBC evensong broadcasts (and a Mag and Nunc CD). Their choir of men and boys, directed by a former director of music at St. Paul’s Cathedral, sings evensong several times a week. The church’s own website, with a music list, is here.

The service I attended had an anthem by Purcell (O God, thou art my God) and canticles by Wise, complemented by a suitably austere psalm chant also by Wise. They shared my taste for not filling in bare fifths. The order of service was familiar, except that I’m not used to the collection being taken during the anthem!

On the Thursday I went to a recital by Dorothea Röschmann and Graham Johnson at Zankel Hall, a recital room attached to Carnegie Hall.

They performed Schubert songs sung by or about four literary heroines, three of the best-known Wunderhorn lieder, and Berg’s Seven Early Songs. There was much for me to learn from here, and I was well placed to do so being near the front. The singing was impassioned without ever being less than totally controlled. Graham Johnson’s accompaniments easily matched it, and I didn’t miss the colour of the orchestral versions of the Berg and Mahler songs. I was particularly impressed by the balance the performers achieved when melodies and counter-melodies changed places between voice and piano in several of the Seven Early Songs (offhand, I can’t think of other songs which do this). At the end of these, my neighbour all but came to blows with the man on the other side of her, who alleged that she’d turned the page of the translation booklet during the closing bars of Im Zimmer (I heard nothing myself). Perhaps he was listening to the high B flats in the piano part which are now sometimes performed (as this time), although in my score they are printed as small notes and marked as ‘not to be played; they refer to the orchestral version’. Speaking of extraneous noise, I heard a subway train only once in this subterranean venue.

Next up is a write-up of a visit to Winchester Cathedral with the Erleigh Cantors.

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sets at the Met

Posted on October 20, 2006 by vhk10

During a visit to New York last week I went with my father-in-law to a performance of Zauberflöte at the Metropolitan Opera. I thought carefully about which opera to go to, and I was rather tempted by La Gioconda, because I associate it so strongly with Metropolitan Opera quizzes, but decided that since the last two operas I saw are among the darkest in the repertoire, I wanted something with a happy ending.

I believe that this production is popular with audiences, but we felt it was rather a triumph of style over substance. The rotating set which dominated the centre of the stage reminded me of nothing so much as a Japanese pachinko parlour with its mirrors and neon strip lighting. I kept on wondering what the next gimmick would be instead of concentrating on the action and the singing. Of course I should have remembered to pack my opera glasses as up in the dress circle it wasn’t too easy to read people’s expressions. But they weren’t all lost on me. After hearing Bei Männern, which could so easily be a love duet, it seemed to me rather a shame that Pamina and Papageno weren’t paired up at the end!

We were quite happy with the singing, my only quibble being that some of Sarastro’s low notes were a bit indeterminate. The Met orchestra performed adequately, though I think Covent Garden’s might have brought more colour and verve to the score.

Audience participation in the form of mid-act applause is more than you get in Britain, and the man behind me chuckled knowingly at many places. As these weren’t all obviously funny to me, I wondered if I was suffering sense of humour failure (I never have really understood Austrian humour anyway) or whether his chuckling was just random. Also not very funny was being repeatedly kneed in the back; the seats at the Met, well-upholstered though they are, aren’t that solid!

There’s a page of info about the production here.

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don’t pass remarks!

Posted on September 26, 2006 by vhk10

So I was often told – but not everyone in a choir follows this rule.

Singing develops certain skills which may have their uses outside performance. One is the ability to control volume precisely, and this can allow someone to say things audible to those around them in rehearsal, but out of earshot of the conductor! Many a choir practice in Manchester was enlivened by the dry comments of one of the singers just behind me. (I can’t remember any of them now, and without the context they probably wouldn’t be very amusing).

A less entertaining characteristic of singers is that almost by definition we like the sound of our own voices. This can have long-winded consequences at those evenings we all dread – the choir AGM.

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how I got into Prom 71

Posted on September 21, 2006 by vhk10

I only just made it to the Royal Albert Hall (the RPO and Daniele Gatti) in time thanks to a delayed train. Having arrived after the concert had sold out, I was prepared to be disappointed and had a reserve plan to cadge a ticket off someone leaving at the interval (there turned out to be a number of such people). But as I turned away I was called back by one of the people selling arena tickets, who had an unused complimentary ticket – my gratitude goes to them if they happen to be reading this. (I thought only singers, and in some cases conductors, nowadays had the kind of personal following Joshua Bell enjoys. Maybe there’s hope for classical music yet!)

My free seat was right up by the organ pipes, with an overhead view of the orchestra. It was slightly odd acoustically, as the sound was being projected away from you and it all sounded rather far away (because it was rather far away).

I don’t listen enough to Classic FM to have got tired of Bruch’s first violin concerto; this particular performance erred on the side of being severe rather than sickly, which is how I’d want it. But I was really there for the Shostakovich, his tenth symphony.

I don’t think I’d ever heard one of his symphonies live in the concert hall before. I was glad of my bird’s eye view of the orchestra as the themes were transformed by being passed around from section to section. The only instrument I couldn’t see easily was that vital one, the xylophone. I maintain that when the xylophone comes in, you can tell that a Shostakovich symphony is getting really serious; though actually it isn’t used much in no. 10. One can play the game of finding extra-musical significance almost endlessly with these symphonies; but as a reprise of the brutal music from the scherzo was stomped on by a fortissimo DSCH, it was hard not to sense relief and triumph that the composer had outlived Stalin. For further comments on the performance, I refer the reader to the Guardian‘s review.

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a visiting choir at Exeter Cathedral

Posted on September 7, 2006 by vhk10

I rather dropped into and out of the Cathedral Chamber Choir’s week at Exeter Cathedral. This week was keenly awaited because the choir has not (as far as I can tell) been to Exeter before, and had indeed been trying unsuccessfully for some years to get a week there, before my persistent enquiries paid off. I made a special excursion to Exeter on the Wednesday to sing my favourite canticle setting (the Gibbons Second Service) before returning at the weekend.

On the Saturday all the music for the service (bar the hymn tune) was by Donald James, who was associated with the choir in its early days. We enjoyed the anthem (a setting of Psalm 100) in particular and tried to work out the influences on it: Walton’s setting of the same text, Rejoice in the Lamb and I thought also the Holst Nunc Dimittis.

Sunday was busy with a Mass setting by a composer new to me, Rogier (his Mass Ego sum qui sum), and Howells’ Coll. Reg. Te Deum in the morning. On Sunday afternoon we had Elgar’s Give Unto the Lord (one of those pieces for which there never seems to be enough rehearsal time) and I did the soprano solo in Stanford in G.

I was glad to hear that the amplification system has been altered since I last sang in the choir stalls. Formerly, you were addressed not by the person whose lips you could see moving but by a distorted sound coming from a totally different direction. (Although the new system had a glitch on Sunday morning, when an echo effect made it sound as if all the president’s part was concelebrated!)

There are some matters which a visiting choir should be aware of which weren’t mentioned in the notes sent out in advance to us. The song school is no longer available for the use of visiting choirs. In the usual way some rehearsal time is available in the Cathedral itself when nothing else is going on there, but Exeter is busier in this respect than many Cathedrals and so this time can be limited. For example, during the summer (though not in school terms!) a guided tour is scheduled from 1.30-2.30 on Sunday afternoons (Evensong is at 3) and the choir is not supposed to rehearse in the Cathedral while this is going on. (We just went ahead and rehearsed then anyway).

Apart from that the Chapter House can be booked for rehearsals, although the choir may not necessarily have it to themselves (when I sang at Exeter in October a buffet lunch was being set up there during our rehearsal). We used the boys’ vestry next door as a lockable space for our music and gowns. It is a good idea to sort out rehearsal time in the Chapter House well in advance, especially if the choir isn’t meeting before it gets to Exeter.

[Since this was written, a new and very nice choir rehearsal room has been created and can be used by visiting choirs.]

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