Bexhill Festival of Music

De La Warr Pavilion, 14 June 2014

On such a lovely evening it seemed a pity we could not move the concert onto the outdoor terrace and enjoy the mid-summer sunset. Thankfully there was more than enough sunshine inside the hall to keep us happy throughout the very varied choral styles on offer.

The front few rows of seats had been removed so that the Sussex Concert Orchestra were playing from the body of the hall and none of the chorus were behind the proscenium arch. This greatly helped the balance and brightened the sound, particularly in the lively concluding spirituals.

Much of the evening was given over to liturgical music from the English cathedral tradition, the first half opening with Parry’s Blest Pair of Sirens and running through to Stanford’s Te Deum in Bb. The chorus demonstrated a solid range of dynamics in the Parry with some effectively hushed pps. In Zadok the Priest they gave us clipped diction and tight rhythms to accentuate the text. Holst’s Turn back, O Man is hardly well known except for the melody line itself which is a familiar hymn-tune, but made a quiet buffer before the Stanford.

The most substantial work in the first half was Stanford’s Te Deum where the orchestra becomes a force it its own right, from the substantive brass opening.  The balance was effective throughout and the interchange between chorus and orchestra subtly maintained.

The excerpt from Mozart’s Requiem which opened the second half was the only item to suffer from being an excerpt. No matter how well sung, it seemed truncated. No such problem with the arrangement of Bach’s Jesu, joy of man’s desiring with a fine oboe obbligato from Ruth Elias. After so much liturgical music it was quite a wrench to find ourselves in the opera house with three very familiar opera choruses. Verdi’s Anvil Chorus highlighted the percussion’s enthusiastic hammering as well as the choruses proficient Italian. Of the three, the Bridal Chorus from Lohengrin was particularly effective, the sopranos spinning lines of great beauty, before they concluded this section with the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves.

Claire Williamson gave two solos during the evening. She opened with a bravura rendition of Handels’ Let the Bright Seraphim superbly mirrored by Andy Gill’s solo trumpet, and in more refined mood sang Franck’s Panis Angelicus with the chorus deftly supporting.

The only thing missing during the evening was the sound of the organ. With so much liturgical music it was a pity no effective electronic instrument was to hand. Robert Aldwinckle gave very positive support on harpsichord for the Handel, but this and the other liturgical works might have sounded better with the addition of an organ accompaniment within the orchestra.

The final work was a world premiere. Kenneth Roberts not only controls his forces with aplomb but knows their characteristic strengths. All of these were to the fore in American Spirituals – an arrangement of five spirituals with a propensity towards jazz and brass. It was highly effective and enthusiastically performed and received. In his brief introduction Ken noted that the difficulty is always the second performance – never the first. Let us hope this engaging arrangement receives more than two!

This had been Great Choral Classics II. Let us hope that Bexhill can run to another Music Festival like this in future years.