In the Garden of God

Posted on August 2, 2012 by vhk10

Sadly the weather prevented us from enjoying the St. Mary Magdalen chapel garden, which has one of the best views in Bath. Instead, the Chandos singers performed an unusual programme of music setting mostly Catholic texts, or at least texts by Catholic authors.

Rubbra’s Creature-songs to Heaven are a real rarity. They set four poems, translated by Rumer Godden, which imagine how a hen, a snail, a ladybird and a peacock might address God. They were written for a school choir which I imagine must have found them quite taxing because they are difficult, even with the help of a piano accompaniment (the accompaniment exists in various forms). I can see there are non-musical reasons why they have sunk, rather unfairly, almost without trace (an Internet search on the title turned up no performances other than our own!). They aren’t secular, but couldn’t be performed as part of the liturgy, and also Rubbra’s music is generally out of fashion now (apart from choirs going doggedly through his evening canticles in A flat).

I’d divide Britten’s music for unaccompanied choir, or choir+small forces, into two categories. There are the pieces that don’t require a very accomplished choir (of which I’d rate Rejoice in the Lamb as the hardest) and the ones that are really seriously hard (of which I’d rate the Hymn to St. Cecilia as the easiest). AMDG, an unaccompanied setting of seven poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins, is definitely in the latter camp. The set was never completed, which suggests that Britten himself was not happy with it, as I think he didn’t leave a trail of unfinished pieces behind him. I sense that he was somehow at odds with the words – perhaps this is most clear in his setting of The Soldier, which apparently praises a profession Britten would have deplored. Occasionally I got disconcerting echoes of other pieces Britten wrote around the same time, such as his Cabaret songs!

We sang two of Grieg’s ‘Psalms’ Op. 74, his last compositions, and characteristic of him in their rather modal turns of phrase, but now combined with daring harmonies.

Substantial pieces by Sweelinck (Ecce prandium meum) and Gabrieli (Jubilate Deo) completed the concert.

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Why I’m giving up chamber choirs

Posted on July 23, 2012 by vhk10

I don’t want to alarm too many people whom I sing for – I’m not giving up singing in small groups for liturgical purposes, or taking part in workshops for small numbers of singers. Nor am I necessarily doing this absolutely and for ever – in fact, I’m always open to the opportunity to do something interesting and worthwhile, and to having my arm twisted. But for the moment I intend, where concerts are concerned, to concentrate on larger groups of 60 or more. (I realise this is a rather arbitrary division, but in my experience it seems about the right place to make it).

Severeral things have led me to this. One is the realisation that there are number of works I would like to sing, or sing again, that can only be done with a large chorus. Another is meeting a number of good singers who do a lot of symphony chorus singing, and clearly do not regard it as a second-rate option. Thirdly, after singing recently in a couple of concerts with a large chorus, I’m beginning to feel that this may be what I’m best cut out for. If I’m honest, this suspicion has been at the back of my mind for a long time, even from before I moved to Bath.

My history with chamber choirs has been mixed. There have been a lot of choral relationships which haven’t worked worked out, but no real recurring theme, unless it’s the dreaded ‘waiting list for auditions’, which never in practice leads to an audition. Sometimes I’ve had to say goodbye when I moved away from the area; other choirs, in particular the Brandon Hill Singers, just fizzled out. I had the misfortune to live in Manchester at a time when there were very few chamber choirs there (others noticed this, and several were started up at around the time I left). One local conductor said she admired my singing and musicianship, while treating me as one of the most dispensible of her singers. Another dropped me from his (very distinguished) choir explaining that he felt I wasn’t at ease in some of the repertoire they did, a fair comment at the time. Two other local choirs cancelled auditions at the last minute. And so on and so forth. I am beginning to conclude that I may have been barking up the wrong tree for quite a while.

I should like to make it clear that I’m not quitting in a huff the choir I’ve been singing with most recently. Far from it. But I do feel I need a change. Watch this space for news of what happens next.

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Adam and Eve-ing it

Posted on July 19, 2012 by vhk10

I took part in the South West Festival Chorus/Bath Phil’s performance of Haydn’s Creation. Our conductor, Jason Thornton, told as that Haydn had been inspired to write the work after conducting Messiah in Bath Abbey, so by performing it there we were ‘bringing it home’.

I hadn’t done this for some years (last time was with the Brandon Hill Singers). One problem with it is that there isn’t a huge variety of mood. The fall of the demons near the start of the work is really the only ‘dark’ music the chorus has to sing. For the rest of it, we bob up at the end of each day’s work and cheer ‘Another winner! Hooray for God!’

Meanwhile we had some fine soloists (Sophie Bevan in particular). I’d forgotten quite what a long work the Creation is, and in fact we cut it slightly.

In order to practice entries, I stood in for the soprano soloist in part of the rehearsal, including one of the long Adam/Eve duets. (Fortunately not the bit where (the unfallen) Eve has to sing ‘from obedience grows my happiness’!) In fact, if I’d been making Genesis’ Creation story into a libretto I’d have done it a bit differently. Haydn could surely have done something interesting with the bit about Adam’s rib, for example.

The performance was reviewed in the Bath Chronicle. It was just a pity that the audience, though sizeable, wasn’t even larger. The concert didn’t get any extra publicity beyond the usual Bath Phil leaflets.

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A genuinely funny opera performance

Posted on July 12, 2012 by vhk10

All too often at performances of the opera you get that rather strained, knowing laughter that people produce when they feel it’s expected of them rather than when it is actually derived from the performance. There was a fair amount of it at WNO’s Beatrice and Benedict a few weeks ago.

But others in the family reported that Opera Project’s lightly-staged Barber of Seville at St. George’s Bristol was genuinely hilarious. They got to go because I couldn’t use the tickets I’d won at the quiz a few weeks ago. Musical standards were fine once the orchestra had settled down.

Meanwhile my daughter has alerted me to this on YouTube, which matches opera arias/extracts to Harry Potter characters, with clips from the films. I can’t always comment on the appropriateness of the extracts (composers included Boito and Meyerbeer and the music was not all familiar to me), but it occurred to me that the compiler would have had even more choice if they’d used Wagner (both draw on North European mythology) and/or Russian opera. Any ideas about an operatic Dumbledore?

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The WholeNote

Posted on June 27, 2012 by vhk10

On a visit to Canada last month I found a copy in our hotel room of a publication called The WholeNote. It’s a monthly magazine about classical music (also covering jazz, musical theatre and world music) in the Toronto area. The issue I read had an yellow insert in the middle called ‘The Canary Pages’ with details of many local choirs, which appears annually. The rest of the magazine consisted articles by local authors, mostly previewing what was coming up in the area, and book and recording reviews. The level is often quite erudite; an article about Handel’s Semele traces the myth back to Thracian origins with discussion of the Indo-European roots of the names of the characters involved. (Though this relied a bit too much on The Golden Bough for my liking).

It’s a quite substantial seventy pages or so (not including the ‘Canary Pages’), with several pages of concert listings and some advertising but not a huge amount. So I wonder, is there anything like this in Britain? A Time Out focussing on serious music? Is there something in London that I just don’t know about?

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The sword of Damocles

Posted on June 12, 2012 by vhk10

I missed most of the Bath Festival this year, but caught towards the end the Belcea Quartet’s Beethoven programme at the Assembly Rooms.

After hearing an efficient performance of the fifth of the ‘Haydn’ quartets, I managed to track down the tubs of ice cream in the interval. (There is a cabinet of them in a corner of the room with the bar in, but watch out as some are the diabetic ones). Fortified, I returned for Op. 130.

I think I know this least well of all the late quartets. This performance included the Große Fuge, which I’d only ever before heard played separately. And somehow the knowledge that this finale was coming up informed the rest of the performance. Between the movements the pauses were longer than usual, as if the performers needed to summon up extra strength for what lay ahead. And while there was great dynamic contrast in the earlier movements, there was also a sense that something had to be kept in reserve. The audience, too, seemed to be holding its collective breath. Apart from those who were afflicted by coughs; this concert had more extraneous noise than I’ve heard in a while, including dogs barking outside, the dreaded Nokia ringtone in the first half, and programme-rustling. This last was partly because of the kind of crackly paper on which the programmes have been printed for this Festival – something for the organisers to take note of for next year?

So when the Große Fuge came round, we were all hanging on every note (and weren’t disappointed). But it’s very hard to concentrate on the earlier part of the quartet if you’re so eager to hear how the performers will manage the end of it. Perhaps the Große Fuge is better detached and performed on its own after all. Or maybe someone should try programming the quartet without saying in advance what the final movement will be. Has this ever been done?

This programme is being repeated on June 13th, broadcast live on Radio 3 and available on demand for a week afterwards.

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The Britten Sinfonia at the Wiltshire Music Centre

Posted on June 11, 2012 by vhk10

I made a detour to hear the Britten Sinfonia at the Wiltshire Music Centre in Viennese repertoire. Bath itself has a lack of concert halls that are a natural size for a small orchestra – the Assembly Rooms and Guildhall can only accomodate chamber concerts, the Abbey has awkward sightlines and acoustic and is rather cramped for the performers, at the Forum the audience feels miles away and the Michael Tippett Centre is some way out of town.

The programme began with Schubert’s German Dances as arranged by Webern. I find these really rather poignant pieces, since they represent both the world Webern arose from and the one which rejected his own compositions. And while they don’t rank very high in the list of Schubert’s compositions, their melodies are lodged in my memory from previous hearings.

Webern’s 5 movements Op. 5 followed, a real test for the orchestra’s being unconducted but it came off. The performance was discreetly directed by the leader, who however, remained uncredited although she got a bouquet at the end (I learnt later that she’s Jacqueline Shave).

After the interval, Roderick Williams sang a selection of Schubert songs arranged by Webern. These arrangements, though attractive, are less interesting than the dance arrangements which we heard in the first half, and were made while he was still a student.

Mahlers Rückertlieder sounded light and fresh, though I did miss Um Mitternacht which is the greatest of them in my opinion. And the programme ended with the second performance of Schubert’s 5th that I’ve heard in three weeks! (rather faster than the other one)

I had a look for the oboist I used to know in the Sinfonia but I think she must have sent a dep to this concert. I am a ‘friend’ of the orchestra on Facebook although they don’t seem to update very much with their forthcoming concerts, which is a pity.

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The cost of score hire

Posted on June 7, 2012 by vhk10

I have the option of hiring a score of a well-known choral work for £5 for a forthcoming concert. I’m not sure whether this reflects the actual expense of hiring, or whether the choir has added a markup, but when you add postage to me, it is only a pound or two short of what it would cost to buy a good used or even a new copy of the vocal score of the same work.

Is this now the going rate for score hire? At this rate I am going to start acquiring a library of the works I sing.

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Bruckner and the snoring hummingbird

Posted on May 25, 2012 by vhk10

During rehearsals our choirmaster, Gavin Carr, told about the viral YouTube video of a hummingbird apparently snoring. I’m not sure quite how this was intended to inform our performance of Bruckner’s Mass in F minor – not at least by a direct imitation of its tone which was a bit shrill. I think we were to remember that the piece is far from being heavy and loud all the way through.

I’ve sung all Bruckner’s motets and his Te Deum but this piece was totally new to me. Trying to locate it in the matrix of things I’ve sung, I decided it worked best to treat it as if it were Elgar, who must have looked to Bruckner as a model. There’s a phrase in Elgar’s Benedictus (which I sang for the first time during rehearsals for the Bruckner) which I’m sure is lifted from the Agnus Dei of this mass. But Bruckner lacks the twinge of English melancholy that you find in Elgar. It’s all a little bit too certain for my taste. And what did he have against compound time? My score had one bar of it towards the end, but even that seemed to have vanished from more modern editions. A recurring problem was that of coming in in exactly the right place in the middle of several bars where the harmony didn’t change at all and some Urthema relentlessly ploughed on.

Nevertheless, I’m glad I’ve sung it and would be interested to do more Bruckner masses (the one accompanied by wind players sound particularly intriguing). We had good company in the shape of the Bath Phil (who also played Schubert’s 5th), a fine team of young soloists, and a sizeable and appreciative audience.

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a quiz at St. George’s

Posted on May 14, 2012 by vhk10

I took part in a piece of Bristol University research, held one evening at St. George’s Bristol, after picking up a flyer about it in a local music shop. The researchers were looking at concert programming – what makes an appealing concert programme and how does this differ if the potential audience is more musically knowledgeable? Do people avoid relatively unknown pieces or are some people actually attacted by the idea of hearing something new? Do people like programmes all from the same composer or period, or prefer variety? We were offered multiple-choice options for programmes and picked selections that we would like. (I suspect at least one of the ‘new music’ pieces was actually invented, so as to be guaranteed to be new to everyone!)

To gauge our level of musical knowledge there was an associated quiz. I won’t go into great detail because the researchers might use the questions again elsewhere. There were some simple aural tests, questions on musical history, and pieces of music and instruments to identify. We were also played multiple recordings of the same passage and asked which interpretation we preferred. I’ll just describe one question which was I think included out of interest rather than to test us. We heard three performances of a piece of guitar music by Albeniz and were asked to say which we thought was played by a woman. Actually I got this right, though purely by guessing. With pianists, I think it is true that women tend to have a lighter touch than men, but the overall range is the same, so you can’t tell by listening.

I’m happy to say that I won the competition, mainly due to being able to identify most of the pieces of music, so I got two free tickets to go to St. George’s in June.

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The Big Space

Posted on May 11, 2012 by vhk10

The Cathedral Chamber Choir spent Low Sunday weekend at a new venue for us, Liverpool Anglican Cathedral. I’d sung there once before, a huge combined NW choral societies’ performance of Gerontius. I remember two things from that: one was that you couldn’t find a better demonstration that sound travels much slower than light, as the semi-chorus had to be re-positioned several times before they were able to keep toghether with the orchestra. The other was that we carefully seated ourselves somewhere with a sightline (vital for the reason I have just given), only to find a row of tall members of the RLPO chorus, who had been excused the morning rehearsal, appearing after lunch and blocking our view completely. I spent the concert swaying from side to side to get a fleeting glimpse of the conductor.

Back to Low Sunday 2012. We sang the Saturday evensong in the Lady Chapel – itself larger than most churches. We filled this relatively intimate space with Byrd’s Sing joyfully, V-W’s O taste and see and for a bit more beef, Stanford in B flat.

On the Sunday we were in the ‘Big Space’ for which we had one of the Cathedral’s approved organists. I know the requirement to use an organist on this list puts some choirs off coming to Liverpool, but without it a lot of rehearsal time could easily get used up on getting the ensemble together. Our Mass setting was Mozart’s in F K192, which I think I may have done before, but if so remembered nothing from it. Evensong featured Howells’ Gloucester canticles and a second helping of Stanford, Ye choirs of new Jerusalem which we used to bawl out on Easter Day at Little St. Mary’s. This being Liverpool, we only had rather miserable scraps of psalmody to sing. I had a look at their chant book and it seemed to have a very limited variety of chants, so clearly psalms aren’t a very high priority.

I got some time to look around the building and found a window near the West end depicting a selection of church musicians. There can’t be many representations of John Goss and F.A.G. Ouseley in stained glass.

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An unrepresentative audience for Berlioz

Posted on April 25, 2012 by vhk10

I went to Welsh National Opera’s production of Beatrice and Benedict at the Bristol Hippodrome. This was a sumptuous production, with lavish sets and costumes, and beautifully lit as the evening turned to moonlight in the first act. But if what you’re impressed by at the end of the evening is the lighting, hasn’t something gone wrong?

There weren’t problems with the singing – the usual crop of WNO regulars did a good job – and I fear that the root of it was really in the work itself. It pains me as a Berlioz enthusiast to say this, but at the end of the day this opera really feels a bit more like extended incidental music to a cut-down version of Shakespeare’s play. Ah yes, Shakespeare. This performance was in English, and while some of the Bard’s lines were retained, this showed up that the rest of the back-translation into English didn’t really match up. At least with Berlioz’ French libretto, it’s all equally distant from the original.

I had the feeling that the production had been tailored to appeal to a particular audience, with its extravagants sets, mannered acting (everyone froze during Hero’s big aria in Act 1) and Donald Maxwell’s buffo Somarone. Now I am not someone who feels it is an offence against political correctness if those attending an artistic event do not precisely match the make-up of the local adult population in all respects; but I think this was the oldest opera audience I’ve ever been a part of, and I saw only one black person in it. Shouldn’t WNO be trying to reach a wider cross-section of Bristol?

Reviews:

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