Concert Reviews
St Giles–in–the–Fields
19 November 2010
Giovanni Gabrieli: Angelus ad pastores ait
Henry Purcell: Lord how long wilt thou be angry and Hear my Prayer
Rachmaninov: 6 excerpts from Vespers, op.37 (1915)
Traditional American, arranged by Mack Wilberg and Nigel Short: The Dying Soldier
Rutter: Hymn to the Creator of Light (1992)
Tredici is a 28 voice chamber choir, which, under the direction of Richard Thomas, is as happy in music of the Renaissance as it is in our own century. This recital was typical of their wide ranging programme planning. Gabrieli’s Angelus ad pastores ait was given with the singers in the gallery, allowing for the double choir writing to be clearly heard. I found this quite exhilarating.
Purcell’s two works were well contrasted with the strange dissonances of Lord how long being well achieved by the singers and lingering long in the memory. I must be honest and admit that I find Rachmaninov’s Vespers a piece I cannot warm to in its complete form, but when offered six movements, as here, the music seems quite approachable, but it is surely too austere to be considered attractive. Liz Shirras was a full voiced soloist in the Blagoslovi, dushe moîa (Bless the Lord, O my soul), and the full choir made a rich and full sound when required, if never sounding quite like a Russian chorus – but without those magnificent Slavonic basses how could they?
The Traditional American song The Dying Soldier is one I had never heard before and it is beautiful in its simplicity and effortless grandeur. This arrangement is for solo baritone – well taken by Peter Quintrell – with chorus, but it failed to live up to its promise for there was too little for the chorus to do and insufficient variety of interest in the writing. Tredici did what it could but it deserved better.
To end John Rutter’s splendid Hymn to the Creator of Light, written for the dedication of the Herbert Howells memorial window in Gloucester Cathedral, during his centenary year. This is one of Rutter’s most searching works, not an easy piece to perform, and that Tredici succeeded is to their credit and the dedicated guidance of its conductor. This was a most welcome lunchtime’s music in a beautiful setting.
SEEN & HEARD INTERNATIONAL
________________________________________________________________________________
St Giles–in–the–Fields
26 March 2010
de Padilla Ave regina caelorum
Whitacre Lux Arumque
Vaughan Williams Mass in G Minor
Łukaszewski Two Lenten Motets
Tredici is a chamber choir of some 30 voices and I went along to the beautiful Church of St Giles in the Fields, just behind Charing Cross Road, on the very edge of London's West End, to hear the VW Mass.
After restrained, but very beautiful, performances of de Padilla’s Ave Regina caelorum and Lux arumque –
a work devoid, I am pleased to say, of Whitacre’s cutesy modernism – we came to the meat of the event.
Vaughan Williams’s Mass for four soloists and double choir is one of his most important works but we seldom hear it in concert. Richard Thomas’s direction was near perfect. That so few voices could give such a big performance was a surprise but a very pleasant one. There was much excitement – as in the section beginning Patrem omnipotentem – which balanced the gentle Kyrie, one of VW’s most sincere and delicate utterances. The soloists were choir members and they sang from their positions within their sections and to hear a solo voice come out of the body was quite mystical; a real quality of ecstasy here because of this quasi “hiding” of the soloists. This was a very fine performance.
The show ended with two motets by the young Polish composer Łukaszewski. They made a nice encore.
Full marks to this chamber choir for its enterprise in programming and its excellence in performance.
I look forward to hearing them again.
MUSICAL POINTERS