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CARMINA BURANA
Last Saturday night I found myself in an atmosphere of musical partying at Queen Elizabeth High School.
The occasion was a concert given by Hexham Orpheus Choir under their conductor Glenn Davis.
This was a concert of great excellence performed with a style and an atmosphere that puts more pompous
locations like the Sage to shame.
The evening was beautifully stage-managed. The stewarding was friendly, the programme was well edited and had
a professional feel. The choreography of choir entrance and exit was quick and faultless. The feel of an informal family
party was especially strong in the first half when the choir and soloists, due later to perform Carl Orff's Carmina Burana ,
entertained us with their own party pieces on American themes.
The choir sang two Aaron Copland/Irving Fine arrangements of traditional folk songs.
The bass Robert Seaton sang and acted a trio of spirituals to great effect, before Eileen Bown and David Murray on two
pianos attacked and conquered Percy Grainger's eccentric interpretation of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess.
The soprano Kathryn Jenkin set my mouth watering with two pieces by one of my favourite but too-little -heard composers,
Kurt Weill. With supreme musicianship and theatricality she charmed us with What good would the moon be?
and the totally magical The Saga of Jenny. Then the men of the choir made a brave stab at Leonard Bernstein's Maria
before a culminating Aaron Copland folk song. We the audience had a very good first hour. I've rarely been at a concert
where the performers so clearly enjoyed what they were doing. And their delight was infectious.
The second half was dedicated to a performance of Carl Orff's famous -
( in some local ecclesiastical quarters infamous and banned ) - cantata, Carmina Burana.
Married to an alto I've become, over the course of a near half-century- inured to being a choral widower. In the early
days the exuberance of Orff was a welcome relief to the more usual interminable oratorios. More recently the
O Fortuna chorus has been appropriated by film scores and television commercials galore.
Once it was Instant Coffee and Old Spice. Now the X-Factor has hi-jacked the theme and international rugby
compels us to count the bars before receiving the third referee's resolution of decisions..
There is a danger of not being able to hear the notes for the clamorous clichés. It is all too easy
for this piece to be a bore.For an amateur choir Orff is, therefore, a challenge. In a conventional sense there are few
harmonic challenges. Attention to sudden switches of rhythm and tone are needed. The piece needs a lively conductor
and a choir who pay close attention to his/her guidance. Both the principal male and female soloists are required to hit
extremely high notes while the sole tenor solo, has to sing almost completely in falsetto.
The choir rose to all these challenges. For me, I heard the cantata afresh, helped by some specially commissioned brilliant
translations of the libretti. Orff intended to the work to be a piece of total theatre complete with choreography and what he
called 'magic.images'. As a concert piece we are now confronted by serried rows of black frocks and dickey-bows,
articulating the pleasures and perils of booze, gambling, gluttony and lust! We have to hear orgasm and, happily, we did.
Although denied the full orchestra originally listed by Orff, we did have the joy of accompaniment of two pianos
and an enthusiastic and athletic troupe of timpanists and percussionists, complete with drums, ratchets, sleigh bells, tubular
bells, glockenspiels,cymbals et al. It was good to watch as well as hear.
In Greek legend Orpheus had the power to move, by the plangency of his music, the most inanimate of things.
Those in Tynedale who bear his name moved inanimate me and many others last weekend.
It is greatly to the credit of our local music scene that such an entertaining and enlightening evening was devised.
In his play Private Lives, Noel Coward has a character comment on the extraordinary potency of cheap music.
How much more potent then the effect of really good music well performed among friends.
Choir rises to the musical challenge
The December concert given by the Orpheus Choir is always one of Hexham’s musical highlights, and the audience at St Mary’s Church were not to be disappointed.
The concert was a journey in time through four centuries of sacred music in an eclectic programme that put the familiar alongside the not-so familiar.
The concert opened with two unaccompanied pieces from the 16th century – Exultate Justi and Sicut Cervus by Viadana and Palestrina respectively.
Nowadays it’s almost mandatory to perform works like these with pared-down forces, so it was an unexpected surprise to here these sung so convincingly, and downright musically, by a relatively large choir of mixed voices. The sound was rich, and at times quite full-blooded, especially in the opening piece.
The choral movement which follows Handel’s Let the Bright Seraphim involves some real athleticism, yet came across as confident, precise and at the same time almost effortless.
It was a rare treat to hear an account of Mozart’s Ave Verum sung with directness and a sense of gentle movement in the tempo – all too often this little piece can be a bit po-faced and over-reverent. It was a particularly effective touch to have the choir sing this without scores – this should have been videoed for future generations of amateur choirs as an object-lesson in how to sound good, and look good.
Another unexpected delight was Beethoven’s Die Himmel Ruhmen, presented here as a choral arrangement, giving the choir an opportunity to indulge in some poignant singing – the piece itself was penned by Beethoven as the awful realisation of his impending deafness dawned on him.
Schubert’s Mass in G concluded the evening – a warm and intimate work well-suited to the Orpheus’ sound.
In this work, and others throughout evening, the solo parts were all taken by members of the choir.
All credit to them – while there might have been occasional issues with matching the volume from choir and orchestra – without exception all soloists gave convincing and highly listenable accounts of what at times were quite challenging parts.
We also heard some delightful Purcell, Rameau and Mozart from the orchestra led by Julia Boulton, which included some thrilling baroque trumpet playing.
The audience would have come away with the impression that conductor Glenn Davis works the choir hard, and expects – and gets – high standards.
It is a bit of a shame that the programmed piece by Bach never materialised, but presumably this had to be down to high standards not being met. The results of this hard work were magnified by the splendid acoustic in St Mary’s, which surely must be, in addition to its day-job as a church, one of the best concert venues in the area.
‘Four centuries’ might have been pushing it a bit (toes were merely dipped into the outer two centuries), but this was nevertheless a hugely engaging and well thought-out programme, and the choir, with such a marvellous energy and musicality, did complete justice to it. Roll on Carmina Burana in May!
THE HEXHAM ORPHEUS CHOIR CELEBRATE BEETHOVEN
An all-Beethoven evening was presented on Saturday 22 May in the Queen’s Hall by the Hexham Orpheus Choir. Even though the choir normally sings in local churches,
or in Hexham Abbey, the Queen’s Hall proved to be a good venue for this concert. AUDIENCE LEFT IN PARADISE AFTER STIRRING REQUIEM
HEXHAM Orpheus Choir presented three works in Hexham Abbey on Saturday May 12. The first was Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs, with words by George Herbert, which was expressively sung by Robert Seaton, particularly in The Call.
He was well supported by the choir, piano and string orchestra, although at times the choir was rather restrained. This was particularly noticeable in the final antiphon Let All the World in Every Corner Sing, where the resolute entries were somewhat mellow. But, what a great work with which to start the evening.
The Missa Aedis Christi written by Howard Goodall for divided choir, soloists, string orchestra and organ, played by Michael Haynes, the Abbey organist, was receiving its debut in the North at this performance. It is an ambitious work for any choir.
It starts quietly with the Kyrie sung above a repeated motif by the bass[es?] - the motif returning in various forms throughout the mass; for the sopranos in the Crucifixus; for all parts in the Et Resurrexit section, and the ‘Amen’ underlay at the end of the Credo.
There was some good choral singing dealing with the difficult rhythmic sections, and particularly good lines from the semi-chorus and soloists. What a glorious climax we heard from choir and organ at the Cujus regni non erit finis, followed by four magical bars of male-voice singing before the chorus came back in and rose to another climax at Qui locutus est.
The Sanctus was inspired by bells in the village of Embrun in Southern France, and is a mingling of distant and nearby bells. The rhythm becomes increasingly complex as more voices join in the tolling. I think some of the bell ropes must have become tangled at this point, as we lost the intended clarity.
The Agnus Dei and Dona nobis pacem concluded the mass in a more gentle and conventional manner in which there was some pleasant singing. What a challenge! Well done!
In the second half of the concert was Fauré’s Requiem in which the choir was much more at home, and gave an excellent performance. Michael Haynes used some delightful colouring in the organ accompaniment which added a brightness to the performance.
Particularly notable from the chorus was the alto and tenor dialogue at the beginning of the Offertoire, leading into the baritone solo Hostias sung by Robert Seaton, and well supported by the horn. The harp (Helen Kelly), and solo violin (Julia Boulton) intertwined their playing around the clear bell-clarity of the Sanctus.
This lead into the highlight of the evening - Pip Emler singing Pie Jesu, and filling the Abbey with a clarity and fullness of tone. The audience was surely left in paradise at the end of the Requiem.
All credit to Glenn Davis for masterminding another successful concert.
CHOIR CELEBRATES IN SONG
The Hexham Orpheus Choir celebrated its 50th anniversary with a delightful concert on Saturday, May 23, in Queen Elizabeth High School, attended by the Mayor, Councillor Mrs Ingrid Whale.
Beginning with Haydn's sturdy setting of the Te Deum, the choir was then joined by soprano Kathryn Jenkin for a gloriously confident performance of Mozart's Exultate Jubilate.
Bach's motet Jesu, Meine Freude distils the essence of his larger choral works into 11 hymns and verses celebrating faith in Jesus as friend.
The choir sang this demanding work with great care and warmth, well supported by the three soloists, contralto Susan Davis, tenor Stephen Newlove, and bass Robert Seaton. Several choir members also confidently took solo or small group parts.
The orchestra performed Bach's Concerto for Two Violins in D minor with lively and sensitive playing from the soloists Julia Boulton and Pauline Aitchison.
Mozart's Coronation Mass evoked the courtly world of Salzburg, with full chorus, soloists and solemn orchestration of trumpets and drums.The choir was fortunate to have fine orchestral support throughout the concert.
The concert was conducted by Glenn Davis, the choir's director since 1998, who has clearly helped the singers to achieve a new confidence in their singing.
They have much to celebrate and anticipate in the next 50 years of singing in Tynedale.
SOARING SINGING IN ORPHEUS CHOIR'S CONCERT
It hardly seems a year since Hexham Orpheus Choir presented its 2003 winter concert A Night at the Opera. This year's event took place last Friday in West End Methodist Church.
The content of this programme was in complete contrast, being centred on two settings of the Mass and requiring a good deal of unaccompanied singing. Also in complete contrast,
apart from the words, were the settings themselves. First came the 16th century Spanish composer Victoria's O Magnum Mysterium and, after the interval, Dvorak's Mass in D
(it is the centenary of his death this year). Both pieces use the "ordinary" or shorter version of the genre, subdivided into six movements (Victoria's Credo was omitted this evening),
but because of the historical time gap the style of writing is very different.
A short motet of the same title and said to influence the Victoria Mass, preceded it.
The Mass itself is a masterpiece of polyphonic and contrapuntal a cappella writing. All the hallmarks of the great Renaissance era of vocal composition are here. It follows that interpretation and performance
of such a piece present a challenge to modern amateur choirs. The Kyrie led the four-part choir straight into the technical difficulties of singing with and yet against each other.
The following movements proceeded at a pace, with the interpretation of the Gloria well reflecting the joy of the words. In the Sanctus good use was made of a split choir, providing an apt antiphonal effect. The Benedictus and Agnus Dei were given sensitive readings, the two former movements ending with a spirited contrasting Hosanna chorus. The only imbalance of part singing occurred in the Agnus Dei when the two soprano lines needed to be more alike in tone.
The Dvorak Mass took us straight into 19th century mode with its lush chordal writing and lyrical setting of words. The choir started in full tone with some lovely soaring singing from sopranos. As in the Victoria, good use was made of soloists, semi-chorus and tutti choir throughout.
Other vocal items were two sets of madrigals and two Dvorak part songs. The former were sung with panache. The latter provided a charming and contrasting diversion.
Soloists Alyson Hodgson, Joan Kelsall, Geoffrey Hughes and John Kirk sang with lyrical tone and conviction, the soprano voice of Alyson being best suited to the non vibrato style of singing required for the Victoria.
Michael Haynes of Hexham Abbey provided excellent organ accompaniment for the Dvorak Mass and also played a sonata by the Baroque composer Pescetti, which was typical of the rococo style of the time with much quick movement and ornamentation.
Glenn Davis conducted with his usual attention to detail in vocal matters and historical research.
This was a full programme, requiring significant hard work from all concerned to give us an enjoyable evening.
WALLED GARDEN SOAKS UP THE SOUNDS
For the first time, Orpheus Choir decided to take their music outside and gave a concert last Saturday in the delightful setting of Chesters Walled Garden. There were many anxious glances at the sky during the daytime due to the morning rain, but it cleared out to give a fine evening for this new event. The programme was carefully chosen to celebrate the garden and the local area and began with a beautifully worded introduction by the chairman of the choir, Janet Davies. She spoke of her love for this two-acre walled garden so that the choir could begin with a Bruckner motet, Locus Iste - 'this place was created by God'. This was followed by Vaughan Williams arrangement of a folk song, The Turtle Dove, and then, appropriately, The Water of Tyne which was about the ferry crossing at nearby Haughton Castle. A madrigal by Weekles and two part songs by Saint-Saens took the choir to the interval. The audience left their chairs and picnic rugs to wander among the flower beds, drink wine and eat strawberries and cream. Vaughan Williams' Linden Lea set the scene for the second half, followed by part songs by Parry and the lively, El Grillo (The Cricket) by Josquin des Prez.The programme had to include The Sprig of Thyme from John Rutter's Song Cycle, as the garden has the National Collection of Thyme and this was sung beautifully by Pip Emler, accompanied on the violin by Emma Davis. The conductor, Glen Davis, had arranged this into a choir backing with violin solo as it usually needs piano accompaniment. He had considered using an electronic organ but in the end hoped that aided by the acoustics of the high walls, the choir could sing unaided. The concert was pitch perfect and they all looked as if they really enjoyed singing in the garden.The concert was brought to a close with Evening Song by Kodaly, a soft and mellow ending for a superb summer's night, but the audience begged one last encore - the lovely Bruckner motet that the concert had begun with. I very much hope that this may become an annual event as it was a wonderful evening. We are indebted to the Hexham Courant for allowing us to reprint reviews, editorials and articles relating to the Hexham Orpheus Choir. |
