Monthly Archives: July 2014

Canterbury Cathedral Boys’ Choir

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St Clement’s Church, Hastings Saturday 5th July 2014 

Much eager anticipation surrounded this visit of the Canterbury Choristers to Hastings, as it had been necessary to book them two years in advance.  We ourselves were excited as our appetite had been whetted by recently hearing them sing at evensong in the Cathedral. The audience arrived early and soon filled the church to capacity.  Our own pew included an immaculately behaved dog who had come to hear his young master sing!

The choir caught our attention immediately with Henry Purcell’s fanfare Sound the Trumpet, and they delighted us to the last note of their recital. In a varied programme spanning five centuries, they treated us to items that were familiar and much loved – Rutter’s For the Beauty of the Earth, and Vivaldi’s Laudamus te – and others less familiar like the ethereal Wonder by Anthony Piccolo. We enjoyed Howard Goodall’s Love Divine and The Lord is my Shepherd, and an exciting and intricate arrangement of Cy Coleman’s The Rhythm of Life.  We were privileged to hear works composed by two previous Canterbury choirmasters – Timothy Noon’s Evocation to a Friend, and Bryan Kelly’s Jamaican Magnificat – which as David Flood pointed out, we would never hear again unless we bought the CD!

 

We were told how sought after was the opportunity to sing the solos.  The four young people chosen for this performance – one of whom was celebrating his birthday! – richly deserved the honour. Two solos played by David Newsholme demonstrated the potential of the church’s new organ, and gave the choristers a well deserved break.

The evening was over all too soon.  The choristers’ soaring voices had filled the church, and had moved and inspired us all by their conviction and their evident delight in their task. Their commitment and enthusiasm were apparent when talking to some of them before the concert started. Father Robert in his Vote of Thanks confessed that he was rarely lost for words, but was on this occasion. We all echoed his sentiment that these young people were making the very most of a very special opportunity, and that they left Hastings with our warmest wishes for their future success.   CE & VG

BPO: Summer Season

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Unitarian Church Brighton, Sunday 6 July 2014

Four concerts on Sunday afternoons with works by Mozart in each one, and more recent compositions by local composers, sounds like a good plan for the summer to bridge the days between the end of last season and the start of the new in October.

On this first occasion the string quartet brought together violinists Daniel Bhattacharya and Roland Roberts, viola Bruce White and cellist Peter Adams. They opened with a delightful reading of Mozart’s Divertimento in D major. The acoustic in the church is very close and at first the impact seemed almost too loud – like being in the front room of a hi-fi enthusiast who likes the volume too high – but this soon settled and clarity of texture returned. They found a lightness in the opening Allegro, particularly in the quieter passages, and a fine cantabile in the Andante which danced with subtle joy. The short, bright Presto brought the work to a warm climax and it was obvious the players were thoroughly enjoying themselves.

The afternoon ended with the arrangement of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No12 in A for piano and string quartet, ideal for the small venue. The Bluthner piano has a wonderfully warm tone and was perfectly balanced with the quartet, Jeremy Young being the sensitive pianist. If anything it was difficult to image so intimate a work played by larger forces, so successful is this arrangement. The playful final Allegretto brought the afternoon to a warmly received climax.

Between these two works we were to have heard two works by Ian Morgan–Williams. In the event Several Endings was not ready for performance so we heard only Five or Six Corridors. The work is scored for piano trio. Despite the introduction by the composer it was very difficult to follow the narrative of the thirteen brief pieces and one quickly became lost among the corridors themselves. Towards the middle of the set there is a slow, lyrical section led by the solo cello which builds to heavy, chunky chords on the piano, only to die away as quickly as it arrived. Near the end another lyrical outpouring for the cello – almost a folk melody – is equally impressive. Unfortunately much of the rest of the set seemed discordant and unfocussed, the intense intimacy of the writing being momentarily arresting but not adding to our overall understanding of the piece.

The next concert on 20 July brings works by Mozart, Schubert and Tchaikovsky, plus Peter Copley’s 2nd string quartet. Details on www.brightonphil.org.uk