{"id":7009,"date":"2022-12-23T18:28:16","date_gmt":"2022-12-23T18:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larkreviews.co.uk\/?p=7009"},"modified":"2022-12-23T18:28:49","modified_gmt":"2022-12-23T18:28:49","slug":"a-child-of-our-time-cambridge-philharmonic-orchestra-and-chorus-harry-severs-west-road-concert-hall-cambridge-17th-december-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/?p=7009","title":{"rendered":"A Child of Our Time. Cambridge Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, Harry Severs; West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge, 17th December 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Child<\/strong><\/p>\n

You can have too much Christmas at Christmas, so I take my Scrooge nightcap off to the Cambridge Philharmonic for mounting a determinedly unfestive programme in the third week of Advent, centred on Michael Tippett\u2019s 1944 oratorio on the evil that men can do, A Child of Our Time<\/em>. The main work was supported by two lesser-known orchestral works, both complementing the oratorio in different ways.<\/p>\n

The African-American composer Florence Price has been enjoying something of a moment in recent years, stimulated in part by the rediscovery of a large number of unpublished scores in 2009. Her Concert Overture No. 2 <\/em>seemed like a good companion piece to the Tippett oratorio, being essentially a rhapsody on three spirituals, two of which also appear in the later work. At its best, the music suggested the accompaniment to a classic Hollywood film, and one wondered what the images might have been. Price\u2019s scoring also enabled us to enjoy the sound of the Philharmonic\u2019s large and sumptuous string section at some length. But overall the piece failed to take wing, and I don\u2019t think it was the fault of the performers.<\/p>\n

There was a nod to the festive season in Stravinsky\u2019s Choral Variations on \u2018Vom Himmel hoch da komm\u2019 ich her\u2019<\/em>.\u00a0 This is essentially a remix of Bach\u2019s piece of the same name, rescored for winds, violas and harp and with additional contrapuntal lines by Stravinsky himself. The opening movements, which sound as if Stravinsky was aiming to do for Bach what he had done for Pergolesi in Pulcinella, <\/em>showcased deft and precise playing by the Philharmonic\u2019s excellent wind and brass sections. Later on the choir made their first entrance, singing the phrases of the chorale in long notes over the instrumental counterpoint. But Stravinsky does the singers few favours, setting the lines in the most uningratiating parts of the voice, and the choir struggled to make an impression against the orchestra.<\/p>\n

The opening of A Child of Our Time<\/em>, evoking the darkness and cold of winter, seemed particularly appropriate after a period of some of the coldest weather Cambridge has experienced for several years. Of course the oratorio speaks to much larger issues. In a year when Eastern Europe is again convulsed by war, its tale of uprooted peoples and irrational hatreds seems as timely now as it did in 1944. Moreover, its central figure Herschel Grynszpan was a refugee, and some of the choruses (\u201cAway with them! We cannot have them in our empire. They shall not work, nor draw a dole\u201d) evoked controversies closer to home. Tippett uses traditional spirituals to comment on the story, the songs of one oppressed people commenting on another. Whether by accident or design a fine line-up of soloists of colour vividly brought out this aspect of the work. Among these, Keel Watson, fresh from playing Wotan at Freemason\u2019s Hall, dominated as the Narrator, putting across his lines with tremendous rhetorical force and power. Soprano Francesca Chiejina brought warm and glowing tones to the role of The Mother, floating her voice over the chorus to magical effect in \u201cSteal Away\u201d. Mezzo Felicity Buckland had less to do, but sang with eloquence and humanity. Tenor Ronald Samms seemed a little too wedded to his score as The Boy, but his cry of desperation at the plight of his mother remained in the memory.<\/p>\n

This is, as I know from experience, an extremely difficult work to perform, and though the orchestra were fully equal to the journey the chorus sometimes got lost in the winding paths of Tippett\u2019s dissonant counterpoint. The concluding \u201cScene\u201d where the chorus debates with the Narrator as to the meaning of the work seemed a very one-sided match, with the 100-strong chorus making little impression against Watson\u2019s powerful solo voice. The taxing fugal chorus which evokes Kristallnacht itself was however vividly realised, and singers and band seemed perfectly balanced and at home in the spirituals. Harry Sever directed with a sure sense of the final destination, not quite bringing us into camp-ground at the end, but as close to it as Tippett allows. A sobering concert at the end of a sobering year, but with plenty of reminders that alongside the darkness in humanity, there is always capacity for light.<\/p>\n

William Hale<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You can have too much Christmas at Christmas, so I take my Scrooge nightcap off to the Cambridge Philharmonic for mounting a determinedly unfestive programme in the third week of Advent, centred on Michael Tippett\u2019s 1944 oratorio on the evil … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7009"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7009"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7014,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7009\/revisions\/7014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}