Guest Musicians
Ian Shaw
Charles Harrison
John Robinson
Bronagh Byrne
Emma Harper
Louise Collett
Andrew Dickinson
Anders Östberg
Peter Yardley-Jones
Morning Motets
Ambleside Parish Church
8 August 2008
No review available.
O Key of David
On Saturday last the Wordsworth Singers in St Oswald’s Parish Church Grasmere gave the fifth concert featuring the music of J S Bach. Also included was music by the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, and Heinrich Schütz born exactly one hundred years before Bach.
The programme began atmospherically with Arvo Pärt’s settings of the Seven Magnificat Antiphons. Although lacking a sympathetic acoustic the choir sang with great control and the sonority of the basses gave a richness to the work, which is resonant of the composer’s Eastern European background. Rendering the contrast between bleakness and warmth within this work was superbly done and the antiphons came to a spine tingling conclusion with the fortissimo exclamation of the seventh antiphon – O Emmanuel, our king and lawgiver with its sustained high tessitura for sopranos.
The first half of the programme ended with a sumptuous performance of Schutz’s polychoral Deutsches Magnificat. Although there was one nervous moment this did not detract from the feeling of the grandiose and the choir captured the style of this music with its full ‘continental sound’ brilliantly.
The major work of the whole programme was Bach’s motet Jesu, meine Freude. This is the longest, most musically complex and earliest of the six motets and also probably the best known. Each of its eleven sections uses combinations of the voices in five, four and three part and a range of Baroque choral writing styles with different degrees of complexity. There was a remarkable balance of sound, beautifully projected and with clarity of individual lines and I was particularly struck by the purity of the soprano line.
For the final choral work we returned to the music of Arvo Pärt, …which was the son of…. , a very different work from that which opened the programme, showing considerable influence of Spirituals and Barbershop and a sense of humour which is not something often associated with his music. The refined and dignified singing of the Wordsworth Singers beautifully portrayed this setting of the lengthy genealogy of Jesus in St Luke’s Gospel.
Mention has not been made so far of organist Ian Shaw who not only accompanied the Bach and Schütz but also performed solo in Bach’s fifth Trio Sonata and his own piece quizzically entitled Solomon and the Gnat. The Trio Sonatas are notoriously difficult to perform with their exposed linear writing and Shaw performed with style and accuracy. His own composition is a quirky piece, with influences of Messiaen and one that deserves to be played more often.
Cumbria is very fortunate to have a choir of this standard who can perform such a wide range of music with a real sense of style. In turn the choir is fortunate to have as their director Edward Caswell whose vocal expertise is able to mould this group of singers into an ensemble which produces a quality of sound and blend that other choirs can only envy.
John Green
Sing a New Song
The Wordsworth Singers, under the direction of conductor Edward Caswell, are to be congratulated upon their deft singing of a very difficult and demanding programme of music from the 14th to the 20th centuries in St Mary’s Church, Wigton, on Saturday evening.
They certainly ‘jumped in at the deep end’ with Josquin’s motet Benedicta es Caelorum and quickly settled down to give heartwarming and convincing performances of this and his very beautiful Missa Pange Lingua – performances which glowed with an inner light, rhythmic complexities seeming to present no difficulties. The forte singing of the Et Incarnatus in the Credo was novel and yet thought provoking, as was the somewhat strange and remote placing at the end of the concert, the hymn melody Pange Lingua from which the mass grew.
Their account of Bach’s motet Singet dem Herrn was gloriously confident. Articulation in the convoluted and quasi instrumental lines was crisp. Stravinsky’s Three Sacred Choruses were a restrained contrast, and must have taxed considerably the voices of all.
Charles Harrison’s organ playing was an astonishing demonstration of sheer virtuosity and superb musicianship, his Bach playing was authoritative and masterful and he seemed to make Louis Vierne’s Aubade and Naiades from the Suite Op 55 bubble out of the instrument.
This is a group of considerable cultural stature of which the county can be justly proud.
David Upton
Inspired by Song
With spring surely just around the corner, what better way to spend a Saturday evening than with The Wordsworth Singers in St Cuthbert’s Church. This, the third in a series of concerts highlighting the works of J S Bach, continued the choir’s tradition of presenting unusual works alongside the fairly familiar in a big programme of music from the 16th century to the present day.
Two of Bach’s motets, the great Komm, Jesu, komm in eight parts, and the less often heard O Jesu Christ meins Lebens Licht formed the core of the first half of the concert, conductor Edward Caswell’s assured direction drawing good, firm singing from the choir and making these into poignant and memorable performances. Remaining with the Bach theme, organist John Robinson treated the audience to a virtuosic performance of the thrilling Prelude and Fugue in G, before enticing us into another world with Cesar Franck’s Choral No 2, the choice of registrations making this magnificent instrument fairly glitter.
Three beautiful and very extraordinary anthems by Henry Purcell preceded the interval, after which we heard three Ave Marias – firstly the exquisite setting by the 16th century Spaniard Victoria, then Bruckner’s magnificent setting in which he seems to achieve “vastness and miniaturism at the same time”, and lastly that by Hungarian Sandor Szokolay. This piece, written in 1988, with close contemporary textures and luminous sonorities amply demonstrated The Wordsworths’ versatility as a choir, and received here in Carlisle tonight its UK premiere.
“Listen to the sound of harmony, this melodious musical instrument of modern skills, which plays sweetly and sings full of praise…” exhorts the 12th century manuscript which Zoltan Kodaly set to music in 1966. Laudes Organi “for organ with choir” proved to be Kodaly’s last completed work, and with its imposing organ introduction and interludes this paean to the King of Instruments brought an uplifting concert to a triumphant conclusion. I look forward to the remainder of the series.
David Upton
Christmas Oratorio
The Wordsworth Singers fulfilled a long-held ambition to perform J S Bach’s Christmas Oratorio at Kendal Parish Church on December 20th, conducted by James Grossmith. As an aperitif to the main work, the large audience was given in the first half of the concert a spirited rendering of Bach’s Magnificat, the song which, according to Luke’s Gospel, Mary the mother of Jesus sang rejoicing in her pregnancy.
The Magnificat was taken at a terrific pace, perhaps reflecting the exuberant joy of Mary, and the result was very exciting. It worked well for the most part, though there were technical problems for some singers and some players at this speed and there was a distinct hitch at the beginning of Omnes generationes, where the choir entry overlaps with the soprano solo, sung by Bronagh Byrne. The opening chorus came over with great drive and everyone appeared to be enjoying themselves. The singers – soloists and choir – were clearly trying to produce an authentically German pronunciation of the Latin text, as opposed to the usual Italianate pronunciation common in this country. This did present some problems and some inconsistencies, most noticeably when the Contralto and Tenor soloists, Louise Collett and Andrew Dickinson, landed several times on the same vowel sound in a duet, but pronounced it differently. Much as your reviewer is in favour of this kind of authenticity, it has to be said that the end result sounded like an English choir trying to sound German. But these are small criticisms of what was overall a stimulating performance.
After the interval, the performers embarked on the first three cantatas of the Christmas Oratorio. This is really a sequence of six cantatas intended for performance at St Thomas’, Leipzig, where Bach was Kantor, on successive days through Christmas to Epiphany, in 1734-5. However, Bach himself grouped them together under the label ‘Oratorio’. Once again, we were treated to brisk speeds for the quicker sections. This time the choir was singing in German and they sounded far more convinced about that than they had about the Germanic Latin in the Magnificat.
There were many notable features of this performance. The quick sections were indeed quick, whilst that marked grazioso was indeed graceful, and the other slower sections were treated similarly well. A ‘Natural’ Trumpet (the precursor of the modern, valved trumpet, and much more difficult to play) was used to great effect in the bass solo, sung by Anders Ostberg, Grosser Herr – Mighty Lord and King all glorious. One wonders whether in the Messiah, written in 1741, Handel modelled his great bass solo with trumpet, The trumpet shall sound, on this movement. And likewise, was Handel’s Pastoral Symphony, which introduces the story of the Shepherds Going to the Manger in Messiah a reflection of Bach’s Larghetto movement which introduces his shepherds?
A feature of the concert which surprised even the performers was the success of the Chorales. Chorales are the hymnody of the Lutheran church and are thus well-known and ‘owned’ even in secular situations in Germany. Bach always included chorales in his cantatas and other larger works, for the congregation to join in. At this concert, the words and music of the chorales were printed in the programme, and the audience was invited to stand and join in, accompanied by the great west end organ of Kendal Parish Church, played by Ian Thompson. The resulting wall of sound from the organ and the large audience was thrilling in the extreme. The final Chorale, sung by the choir, was a triumphant statement of Christian theology, of the triumph of Christ and the forgiveness of sins.
In addition to the soloists mentioned, there was also Emma Harper, as second Soprano. All five soloists made an impressive line-up. All are students, or recent students, at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama at Glasgow, as is Anna Hansen, the leader of the orchestra, the Glasgow Camerata. Though most of the instruments used were modern, the players produced a Baroque lightness of touch to give an authentically Bachian feel to the music.
The conductor, James Grossmith, was making a welcome return to the Wordsworth Singers, of whom he was at one time Musical Director. He is now chorusmaster of Scottish Opera and is much involved in operatic work in Scotland and elsewhere. It is to be hoped that there will be further opportunities in Cumbria to hear him conduct concerts of this standard.
David Jones
Bach and Beyond
‘Bach and Beyond’ was the title of The Wordsworth Singers’ first concert under their new musical director Edward Caswell, and from the start it was clear why the choir have established a fine reputation as a chamber choir.
Few choirs would dare to start a programme with a highly complex eight-part Bach motet, but the choir sang their challenging contrapuntal lines with conviction and, as throughout the evening, with a real appreciation of dynamics and diction.
French repertoire of the early 20th century formed the basis of the rest of the programme. Fauré’s Requiem, with soloists Georgina Harland and Bruce Paterson, was given a restrained performance with great control of vocal line and some particularly sensitive singing from tenors in the Agnus Dei and sopranos in the Sanctus and the In Paradisum.
Poulenc’s Litanies à la Vierge Noire for ladies’ voices and a typically quirky organ accompaniment was beautifully sung with some thrilling climaxes and some lovely reflective moments. This is a rarely-performed piece but well worth hearing. The mystic mood continued with the rich and spacious harmonies of Duruflé’s four Gregorian motets.
Peter Yardley-Jones was a sensitive accompanist to the choral works and played organ pieces by Buxtehude and Alain. The polytonality and Stravinsky-like textures of Alain’s Fantasmagorie were particularly intriguing features of a successful and enterprising concert.
The Wordsworth Singers will be performing the first three cantatas of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and his Magnificat in Kendal Parish Church on December 20. On this form it should be an event to savour.
Colin Marston