2006’s and 2007’s resolutions

Posted on December 31, 2006 by vhk10

In the closing minutes of 2006, it’s time to review my ambitions for the year and to look ahead to 2007.

The musical highlight of this year was (as I suspected a year ago) joining the Bath Camerata on Good Friday to sing the Chichester Psalms and Otce Nas, not just because of the standard of performance and the special atmosphere of Wells Cathedral on Good Friday, or even the opportunity to perform two works I’d long wanted to do, but also for the chance to be part of the choir’s 20th birthday celebrations.

Other than that it’s been a relatively quiet year for performances. Some favourite pieces of mine have come up, including an item on the wishlist, Lætentur Cœli by Byrd. But I haven’t found much time for exploring new solo repertoire.

I observed the Mozart centenary by doing some solos in the Coronation Mass and the Shostakovich one by hearing his 10th symphony at the Proms.

Some long-standing ambitions of mine are apparently not going anywhere. This year marks a decade of my being on the dep list for the choir of the Lord Mayor’s Chapel in Bristol, without ever having been invited to sing a service (when I asked why, I was told that retired people were asked to deputise because they didn’t work on Sunday mornings – as if I worked then!). Experience suggests that the Paragon Singers have a very long waiting list for soprano auditions, and the Bath Festival Chorus seems to be moribund (it hasn’t performed since 2005 and there are no known plans for it to do so in 2007). There are various other possibilities but I won’t go into details in case nothing comes of them.

I will still be on the lookout for opportunities to sing in the four remaining Cathedrals (Leicester, Bradford, Birmingham and Wakefield).

As for my resolution to be better at watching conductors, I have to be honest and admit there’s still room for improvement here. To this I’d add that I ought to be better prepared for performances, not just by learning notes (I already put effort into this) but by routinely looking through the music shortly beforehand to take note of anything that might catch me out such as a repeat going back to an awkward place, or a sudden decrease in dynamic, or a point of interpretation added in rehearsal. It makes a big difference.

Next I’ll write up my final performances of 2006, a weekend of services at St. Alban’s Cathedral.

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let’s go and sing by the bling

Posted on December 29, 2006 by vhk10

I took the older children to the annual Christingle service at the local church here in Buckinghamshire. We soon learnt the Christingle song, which is the only one I know with a line ending in the word ‘orange’ – fortunately it isn’t required to rhyme with anything.

While we were doing this a band of carol singers set off from the Methodist church. I was able to track them down afterwards and we joined them for the final part of their outing, as I’ve done for most years in the last decade or so. Singing out of doors imposes a certain lack of subtlety, but I think we gave a reasonable account of most of the standards.

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with extra percussion

Posted on December 24, 2006 by vhk10

As with three years ago, this year’s 9 lessons and carols service featured brass, but now there was also a percussion section which I was standing in front of. To balance this, some local big guns were drafted in to boost the choir.

There wasn’t anything totally new to me, but there were some pieces with potential pitfalls for the unwary. We sang the Holst Ave Maria again. Andrews’ Before Dawn has a straightforward tune for the sopranos, but with subtle changes in melody and rhythm between verses to fit different harmony and words.You have to watch tones and semitones carefully in the Harker arrangement of Away in a Manger. Sweelinck’s Hodie Christus natus est was a piece I last sang with the Exultate Singers a couple of years ago; the second soprano part has a trap on about the fourth page which has caught me out in the past, when it’s the only entry on the beat with one particular phrase. Once you know it’s there it’s easy enough not to fall into it. In fact that was true of all the difficulties I’ve mentioned.

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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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