Category Archives: Choral

In concert – Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Soloists, Philharmonia Chorus, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / Vasily Petrenko: Elgar, Weinberg & Rachmaninoff

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Sheku Kanneh-Mason (cello), Mirjam Mesak (soprano), Pavel Petrov (tenor), Andrii Kymach (baritone), Philharmonia Chorus, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / Vasily Petrenko

Elgar In The South (Alassio) Op.50 (1904)
Weinberg Cello Concerto Op.43 (1948/1956)
Rachmaninoff The Bells Op.35 (1913)

Royal Festival Hall, London
Thursday 11 April 2024

Reviewed by Ben Hogwood Pictures (c) Chris Christodoulou

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Vasily Petrenko continued their dual focus on Rachmaninoff and Elgar this season with a deeply satisfying programme. They began with Elgar on holiday, music to match the Mediterranean climate of a rather humid Royal Festival Hall. This was In The South, Elgar’s extended postcard from Alassio, Italy, a sudden burst of inspiration that the composer finished in double quick time. Petrenko and his charges caught the instinctive writing, launching the overture in high spirits that brought the spring sunshine in from outside. Their interpretation grew in stature as it progressed, the central statements from brass given impressive heft. Yet it was the quieter asides that proved most telling, notably a fine viola solo from Abigail Fenna, whose depiction of the ‘canto popolare’ was appropriately reserved and beautifully phrased.

Sheku Kanneh-Mason joined for Weinberg’s Cello Concerto, a fine work sharing the same key (C minor) and elegiac mood of its now neglected equivalent by Nikolai Myaskovsky, completed three years earlier. Sheku’s credentials in Shostakovich (he won the BBC Young Musician prize with a standout account of the Cello Concerto no.1) served him well here, and he was an eloquent guide in the thoughtful first movement. Again this was an interpretation growing in stature, from a silvery first movement to the persuasive habanera of a Moderato that grew increasingly sour in tone, aided by standout solos from trumpeter Matthew Williams. By the third movement Allegro the gloves were well and truly off, incisive solo playing carrying through to an assertive and deeply felt cadenza, before the finale responded with doleful phrases turning us back to the material of the first movement, emotions not fully resolved. The main theme carried more weight second time around, while Kanneh-Mason’s choice of the same composer’s Prelude no.18 for solo cello was ideal as an encore, setting the seal on a fine interpretation. Hopefully his thoughts on the concerto will be set down in the studio by Decca before long.

Rachmaninoff’s four-part choral symphony The Bells formed a dramatic second half, led by an extremely well-drilled Philharmonia Chorus (prepared by Gavin Carr), whose diction and ensemble were most impressive. On first glance the men appeared outnumbered, but when the telling moments came in the third and fourth movements they rose to the occasion with great conviction.

In tenor Pavel Petrov, soprano Mirjam Mesak and baritone Andrii Kymach, Petrenko could call on three excellent soloists, Mesak in particular impressing with her sensitive phrasing and vibrato, passionately singing The Mellow Wedding Bells. Her glittering dress was an ideal match for Poe’s verse, too. Petrov’s ringing delivery set the ideal tone in The Silver Sleigh Bells, while Kymach’s declamation was pitched just right for The Mournful Iron Bells, right after the frenzied scherzo, The Loud Alarm Bells.

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra gave memorable contributions, with incisive woodwind, plangent brass, strings united as one, and percussion that added punctuation to the choral thunderclaps of The Loud Alarm Bells, Rachmaninoff effectively slamming the door shut on his deepest fears. Following this dramatic high point, the cor anglais solo of Patrick Flanaghan was all the more poignant – and Petrenko made sense of the major key ending, a chink of light in the darkness.

You can find more information on further concerts at the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra website

Published post no.2,146 – Friday 12 April 2024

BBC Proms 2023 – Soloists, London Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra / Gardner – Ligeti & Richard Strauss

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Prom 36 – Jennifer France (soprano), Clare Presland (mezzo-soprano), Edvard Grieg Kor, London Philharmonic Choir, Royal Northern College of Music Chamber Choir, London Philharmonic Orchestra / Edward Gardner

Ligeti Requiem (1963-5); Lux aeterna (1966)
Richard Strauss Also sprach Zarathustra Op.30 (1896)

Royal Albert Hall, London
Friday 11 August 2023

by Richard Whitehouse photos by Mark Allan / BBC

There did not seem any more concrete reason to build a Prom around the music from Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey other than this being the 55th anniversary of its release, but it at least offered an opportunity to revive one of the last century’s defining choral works.

Much has been made of a then avant-garde composer writing a piece based on a seminal text from the Christian liturgy, but centenary composer György Ligeti’s Requiem is anything but beholden to tradition. Focussing on what would normally constitute the first half of the Requiem Mass itself skews the textual imagery away from any hope of attaining ‘eternal rest’ – the four movements duly proceeding from a sombre Introitus in which the music’s conceptual vastness along with its expressive extremes are laid bare. The Kyrie is the most (in)famous part – emerging in two successive and cumulative waves of micropolyphony both overwhelming and disorientating, not least when rendered with the poise and precision that the combined choirs summoned in the Albert Hall’s expanse. Inevitably, the terror of the infinite gives way to that of the absurd.

Hence the Dies irae sequence, designated On the Day of Judgement and a veritable tour de force of choral outbursts with vocal interjections; Clare Presland’s ominous intoning tellingly offset by Jennifer France’s stentorian pronouncements, with the wind and brass of the London Philharmonic Orchestra visceral in their contribution under the attentive guidance of Edward Gardner. Neither did the Lacrimosa lack gravitas, the soloists musing eloquently if wearily against a stark instrumental backdrop whose essential emptiness carries through to the close.

While not intended as a continuation of the larger work, Lux aeterna still makes for a viable resolution in its undulating yet never static textures such as conjure the presence of ‘eternal light’ without any concomitant spiritual aspect. Set high-up in the gallery, to the right of the platform, the Edvard Grieg Kor evinced a faultless intonation along with a tangible sense of the music’s timelessness – though this piece would maybe have been better placed after the Ligeti instead of before the Strauss, not least as there was no segue between the latter works.

Also sprach Zarathustra was, of course, elevated to a new level of public recognition after its Introduction had been utilized as fanfare in Kubrick’s film, and a less than thrilling rendition here at least ensured this Sunrise could not pre-empt the remainder in Strauss’s free-ranging overview of Friedrich Nietzsche’s influential tract. On fine form overall, the various sections of the LPO relished their passages in the spotlight, reminding one that this piece is as much a ‘concerto for orchestra’ before its own time as the musical embodiment of human aspiration. Pieter Schoemann audibly enjoyed setting The Dance Song in motion and while others have made its climax more intoxicating, Gardner brought a rapt serenity to the Night Wanderer’s Song such as made the tonal equivocation of those final bars the more acute and intriguing.

Numerous recent Proms have followed the second-half work with an ‘official’ encore and, while this practice is not always justified, the inclusion tonight of a certain waltz by another Strauss would have extended the 2001 concept still further and effected a more definite close.

For more on the 2023 BBC Proms, visit the festival’s website at the BBC. Meanwhile click on the names for more information on artists Jennifer France, Clare Presland, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Ed Gardner. For more on Ligeti, head to this dedicated website

Online Concerts – The Cardinall’s Musick / Andrew Carwood: Byrd 400th anniversary

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William Byrd
Masses for 4, 3 and 5 voices

The Cardinall’s Musick / Andrew Carwood

Wigmore Hall, London
Tuesday 4 July 2023

Reviewed by Ben Hogwood Photos (c) Benjamin Ealovega

This week we have been marking the 400th anniversary of the death of William Byrd, one of the founding fathers of English classical music as we know it today.

One of the key events on Tuesday, the day itself, was a trio of concerts at the Wigmore Hall from the Cardinall’s Musick choir and their conductor Andrew Carwood. Together they have recorded all of Byrd’s choral music for the Gaudeamus and Hyperion labels, but on this occasion the focus was the composer’s three Mass settings.

Context for these unique works is vital, and it was given by an extremely helpful and thorough note from Katherine Butler, bolstered by musical insight, and also from Carwood himself in well-chosen asides to the audience. Both illustrated vividly how perilous Byrd’s own position as a composer was, for as a Catholic he was compelled to write settings of the mass, despite knowing public airings of the music would be against the demands of his monarch, Elizabeth I, for whom he was royal composer. If discovered, these performances could bring about imprisonment and even death. Because of this, the works lay undiscovered in their largely anonymous packaging, used for very private occasions presided over by a priest who would even have his own bolthole, should the ceremony be discovered.

Byrd
Mass for 4 voices (c1592-3), with the Propers for the Feast of Easter Day

The Cardinall’s Musick [Patrick Craig, Matthew Venner (altos), William Balkwill, Mark Dobell (tenors), Richard Bannan, Robert Rice (baritones), Edward Grint, Nathan Harrison (basses)] / Andrew Carwood

The three Cardinall’s Musick concerts began with a lunchtime account of the Mass for Four Voices, dating from around 1592-3, and given context by in performance by Byrd’s settings of the Propers for Easter, completed in 1607. These began with a celebratory Introit, with its busy acclamation of the resurrection, with the mood changing for a solemn, weighty Kyrie from the Mass. This was given plenty of room by Carwood, with superb control from the singers in their sustaining of the notes. A fulsome Gloria followed, notable for its clarity of line and rhythm. Carwood was judicious in harnessing the ten voices available to him, reducing the forces to five for the Gradual & Alleluia. Here, the portrayal of ‘Mors et vita duello conflixere mirando’ (death and life have fought a huge battle)’ was vividly conveyed, before ‘et gloriam vidi resurgentis’ (‘and I saw the glory of the rising’) reached impressive heights.

The substantial Credo was paced just right, with a holding back from the ‘descendit’, with controlled lower notes to complement. A busy Offertory and graceful Sanctus were beautifully sung, the music gradually unfolding. The Communion (Pascha nostrum) was slow, appropriately reverent and pure, before the moving Agnus Dei had as its end a final chant and response telling us the Mass had finished.

Byrd
Mass for 3 voices (c1593-4), with the Propers for the Feast of Corpus Christi

The Cardinall’s Musick [Julie Cooper, Laura Oldfield (sopranos), Patrick Craig, Matthew Venner (altos), William Balkwill, Mark Dobell (tenors), Nathan Harrison (bass)] / Andrew Carwood

As Andrew Carwood explained, we heard some of the richest music in the first concert, then some of the most intimate in the second. This was music of the recusant house rather than the big church or cathedral, and Carwood invited us to imagine we were in a building no bigger than a sitting room. With Catholics shrouded in secrecy, he gave an idea of just how risky this music making was.

We heard the Mass For Three Voices, with a noticeable reduction in texture from the lunchtime concert, as well as less movement within the parts. That said, there was an air of restrained celebration all the same. A quick Kyrie & more florid Gloria was sung with two to a part, and while the single parts could be left exposed they were very secure in these hands, notably the tricky entries from on high. The Propers on this occasion were for the feast of Corpus Christi and were published in 1605. They featured a ‘risky’ Gradual, before a six-piece Credo found a lovely peak on the words ‘Et ascendit in caelum (and ascended into heaven)’ and a beautiful confluence at the end. There was a suitably thoughtful start to the Sanctus, which became more florid in its ‘Hosanna’ exultations. The Communion was outwardly expressive, retreating to a sombre Agnus Dei and a solemn final chant.

Byrd
Mass for 5 voices (c1594-5), with the Propers for the Feast of All Saints

The Cardinall’s Musick [Julie Cooper, Laura Oldfield (sopranos), Patrick Craig, Matthew Venner (altos), Ben Alden, William Balkwill, Mark Dobell (tenors), Edward Grint, Robert Rice (bass)] / Andrew Carwood

Finally the evening concert gave the Mass for Five voices with the Propers for the Feast of All Saints of 1605 – an effervescent celebration but becoming more meditative as the music proceeded. Carwood, revelling in the occasion, conducted with great sensitivity once again, presiding over a busy Introit with the rejoicing angels. The layered Kyrie of the Mass itself was ideally weighted, making the most of the chromatic possibilities, before a relatively restrained Gloria. The five voices, with increasingly complex writing, were nonetheless easy to follow, their rhythmic lightness suggesting a dance at the end of the Gradual – Carwood referring to the repartee between the voices.

He then referenced the intensity of Byrd’s writing, the declamation in the Credo and its extraordinary harmony, fusing of madrigal techniques into the mass. It was helpful to have these insights on top of the booklet notes, for Carwood setting Byrd apart as a composer even from the likes of Palestrina. The full ten-voice Credo explored deeply felt power and resonance, an incredibly expressive movement, while the purity of the sopranos shone through in the Offertory. A slow Sanctus gradually gathered pace with more complex writing, before the Communion – making explicit reference to the persecution Byrd felt, gave an appropriate stress to the words ‘propter iustitiam (for righteousness’ sake)’ and showed some well-handled dissonances. Finally an Agnus Dei of solemn, minor key angst found peace at last, capped by the closing sentence.

The choir and their conductor received a deservedly rapturous reception, for their beautiful and controlled singing had given Byrd the best possible remembrance, marking the death of this musical martyr in appropriate style. The Cardinall’s Musick and the Wigmore Hall should be applauded for such a well-conceived and executed trio of concerts, which are highly recommended for online viewing!

You can listen to the Cardinall’s Musick recordings of the Byrd Masses, dating from 2000, on the Spotify link below:

In concert – April Fredrick, Thomas Humphreys, English Symphony Chorus & Orchestra / Kenneth Woods: Voyage to America

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April Fredrick (soprano), Thomas Humphreys (baritone), ESO Chorus, English Symphony Orchestra / Kenneth Woods

Dvořák Symphony no.9 in E minor Op.95 ‘From the New World’ (1893)
Sawyers Mayflower on the Sea of Time (2018) [World Premiere]

Worcester Cathedral
Saturday 17 June 2023

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

This final concert of the season by the English Symphony Orchestra brought us the premiere of a piece delayed from three years ago. Philip Sawyers’ Mayflower on the Sea of Time was to have been launched at the Three Choirs Festival in April 2020, but the pandemic derailed this as so many other events. Happily, the tenacity of conductor Kenneth Woods has paid off such that the composer’s largest work so far was finally heard, and in the venue originally intended, making for a notable addition to the English choral tradition and one wholly on its own terms.

Commissioned to mark the 400th anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower from Leiden to Plymouth and thereby founding the United Sates of America, this is an oratorio in concept but equally a choral symphony in its overall design and thematic cohesion. Its libretto, mainly by the artist Philip Groom, features set-pieces for various figures from the Old and New Worlds duly taken by soprano and baritone soloists (those for treble being allotted to sopranos in the chorus), but these along with ones for chorus are drawn into an inherently musical evolution.

Formally, there are four continuous parts. Persecution and Journey, a sonata design such as informs the Pilgrims’ flight from religious persecution and their decision to cross the Atlantic; Arrival in the New World, a slow movement charting their embarkation and tentative initial interaction with native peoples; Survival and Making our Community, a scherzo where the Pilgrims’ industriousness and idealism quickly becomes its own justification; and Our New World, a rondo-finale whose looking to the future is framed by choruses of growing fervour.

As befits such a work, the choral writing is both extensive and resourceful – not least when it elides between depicting Pilgrims or Natives, and that of a more abstract commentary. No less assured, the writing for soprano and baritone allows Sawyers’ lyrical impulse free reign – not least in extended sections toward the end of the second and fourth parts; the latter, especially, rendering comparable passages by Delius or Tippett from a perspective wholly of the present. On either side, luminous and ecstatic choruses accentuate an essentially affirmative message.

The contributions of April Fredrick (no stranger to Sawyers via her long association with the ESO) and Thomas Humphreys could hardly be faulted for commitment or insight, while that of the ESO Chorus exuded a power and immediacy amplified by the resonance of Worcester Cathedral’s acoustic as to belie its relatively modest numbers. The ESO gave its collective all throughout, projecting the textural intricacy and emotional heft of music whose longer-term formal integration was securely conveyed through Woods’s precise yet unobtrusive direction.

Before the interval, Woods gave a notable account of Dvořák’s Ninth Symphony. The poised anticipation of its introduction and visceral drama of its coda were highlights of the opening Allegro, proceeded by a Largo of an eloquence epitomized by rapt cor anglais playing from Louise Braithwaite. Contrast between the incisiveness of the Scherzo’s outer sections and the lilting delicacy of its trio was pointedly underlined, then the final Allegro surged onward to a coda paying tribute to 19th-century symphonism while blazing a trail for what was to come.

Further information on the ESO’s latest Philip Sawyers release (Nimbus NI6436) can be found at the English Symphony Orchestra website. For more on the artists in this concert, click on the names of April Fredrick, Thomas Humphreys, Kenneth Woods and the English Symphony Orchestra themselves – and click here for more on composer Philip Sawyers.

In concert – Alice Coote, Brenden Gunnell, Ashley Riches, CBSO Chorus and Orchestra / Ryan Wigglesworth – Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius

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Alice Coote (mezzo-soprano), Brenden Gunnell (tenor), Ashley Riches (bass-baritone), CBSO Chorus, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Ryan Wigglesworth

Elgar The Dream of Gerontius Op.38 (1899-1900)

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Thursday 2 March 2023

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

It may have had a disastrous premiere here in October 1900, but Birmingham has more than made amends to The Dream of Gerontius through many subsequent performances by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with conductors ranging from Vernon Handley to John Eliot Gardiner, two recordings from its previous chief conductors (Simon Rattle and Sakari Oramo), and tonight a reading which more than confirmed that this ground-breaking piece remains a touchstone of the choral repertoire almost 125 years on from that initial failure.

Although the innate Catholicism of John Henry Newman’s text no longer presents obstacles, the work’s technical demands remain considerable. Not least the characterizing of Gerontius himself, in which Brenden Gunnell acquitted himself with conviction – whether his wearied pallor then combative reckoning with Sancta fortis in Part One, or his wonderous musings then anguished acceptance of his purgatorial fate with Take me away in the longer second part. This role was consequently more believable and more empathetic because more human.

Not a little of that impression was abetted by Alice Coote’s contribution as the Angel. Less imperious than many predecessors (or contemporaries), the extent of her involvement only deepened as Part Two unfolded – the restraint, even reticence, of My work is done taking on heightened eloquence during There was a Mortal, before the Softly and gently of her farewell brought with it a transfiguring radiance as carried through to the close. This was a thoughtful and, increasingly, affecting approach to some of this work’s musical highpoints.

Nor should the contribution of Ashley Riches be underestimated, even though this is limited   to two, albeit crucial, appearances in either part. Arresting and suitably proclamatory at the Priest in Proficisere, anima Christiana, he brought unfailing gravity and powerfully wrought rhetoric to Angel of the Agony – the substance of whose musical presentation can be heard in Elgar’s music across the decades to come, whatever the extent to which the composer moved away from accepting those tenets of Catholic orthodoxy that are set out in Newman’s poem.

One of several works to which it has returned regularly over its half-century of existence, the CBSO Chorus brought its wealth of experience to a piece whose difficulties of ensemble and intonation cannot be gainsaid. From the halting appearances of the Assistants, through to the intricate polyphony of the Demons then cumulative grandeur of the Choir of Angelicals and distanced poise of the Souls in Purgatory, the authority of its contribution – prepared on this occasion by Julian Wilkins – added in no small measure to the impact of the performance.

As, of course, did that of the CBSO. Any regret over Andrew Davis’s indisposition was duly tempered by Ryan Wigglesworth’s tangible immersion and belief in this score – to which he brought a composer’s concern for clarity and cohesion, with a sense of pacing and a placing of its emotional climaxes which made appreciate anew the ambition and audacity of Elgar’s overall conception. Birmingham will doubtless hear many more performances of Gerontius over ensuing decades, with this one a marker as to what the work can and should represent.

You can read all about the 2022/23 season and book tickets at the CBSO website. Click on the artist names for more on Alice Coote, Brenden Gunnell, Ashley Riches and the CBSO Chorus. Meanwhile you can read more about Ryan Wigglesworth at two different locations – his composer profile from publisher Schott, and his conductor profile