United Kingdom Three Choirs Competition [1] – Grace-Evangeline Mason, Holst, Stanford: Rebecca Hardwick (soprano), Marta Fontanals-Simmons (mezzo-soprano), Nicky Spence (tenor), Themba Mvula (baritone), Three Choirs Competition Refrain, Worcester Cathedral Choristers, Philharmonia Orchestra / Samuel Hudson (conductor) Worcester Cathedral, 27.7.2024. (JQ)
Grace-Evangeline Mason – The Imagined Forest (2021)
Holst – The Hymn of Jesus (1917)
Stanford – Stabat Mater Symphonic Cantata, Op 96 (1906)
As befits its repute as a bastion of the British choral custom, it was very becoming that the primary main live performance of the 2024 Three Choirs Competition ought to characteristic music by two composers who’ve essential anniversary years in 2024. The a hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the start of Gustav Holst (1874-1934) was honoured with a efficiency of one in all his best works, The Hymn of Jesus, whereas the centenary of the dying of Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) offered the spur for a revival of his Stabat Mater. Nor are these the one items by both composer on the Competition’s invoice of fayre; additional works by each of them will characteristic later within the week. Nevertheless, earlier than we heard the music of these two composers, we had the chance to expertise a current purely orchestral work.
The British composer, Grace-Evangeline Mason (b.1994) was co-commissioned by BBC Radio 3 and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra to write down The Imagined Forest to mark the a hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Royal Albert Corridor, London. The RLPO and their principal conductor Domingo Hindoyan premiered the piece at a BBC Promenade in September 2021. On her web site, the composer says this of her rating: ‘The Imagined Forest… is a fantastical journey by means of an area that seems to be a well-known impression of nature, however concurrently someplace fully unknown. The forest, a spot rooted in fairy tales, fantasy and folklore, usually represents areas of refuge, hazard, transformation, and journey. Recognising the forest as an ethereal and intangible entity, the piece seeks to momentarily transport the listener someplace intimate and but, surreal.’ She goes on to inform us that the piece ‘is impressed by the work of Clare Celeste Börsch, a Berlin-based artist who makes use of collage strategies to construct imagined worlds crammed with foliage and fauna. Bringing collectively 1000’s of delicate hand minimize paper photos, she creates intricate and immersive areas to remodel abnormal rooms into magical forests… The music follows a voyage by means of the forest with moments of florid vitality marked by tumbling, intervallic passages enacting the liveliness of nature itself, contrasted with giant interludes of static stillness embodying expansive clearings’. (The 2021 premiere was reviewed right here by my Seen and Heard colleague, Colin Clarke, who admired the piece.)
The Imagined Forest takes about 14 minutes to play. It appeared to me, on a primary listening to, that Samuel Hudson managed it effectively and that the Philharmonia gave a superb account of it. Mason’s music is harmonically and melodically engaging and I admired the peace of mind and creativeness of her writing for what appeared like a big orchestra. She had referenced the ‘collage strategies’ of Börsch and it appeared to me that what I used to be listening to was a musical collage. The textures had been attention-grabbing and vibrant, effectively imagined for the orchestra. Nevertheless, I used to be much less certain of the trajectory of the piece. It started slowly and atmospherically; then the velocity elevated – although solely to a reasonable tempo – and step by step extra devices had been added: ultimately, the music subsided once more. Past that, I acquired no agency sense of the place the music was going. While I must be to expertise the piece once more, my preliminary impression is that it’s a bit too lengthy for its musical materials and premise.
The Hymn of Jesus is a piece of blazing, visionary genius. I’ve had the nice fortune to sing it previously, so I do know that to participate in a efficiency is an exhilarating expertise. Sadly, it’s not carried out as usually accurately. One purpose for this may occasionally lie within the lavish scoring: Holst wrote for semi refrain, double SATB choir and a really substantial orchestra. He discovered his textual content within the Apocryphal Gospels and, as Andrew Burn identified within the programme, he was sufficiently motivated that he taught himself Greek particularly to be able to translate the phrases into English. The hymn is wealthy in imagery and the language, as translated by Holst, positively invitations a vividly vibrant, ecstatic musical setting. Thus, the forces for which Holst wrote weren’t dictated by any form of extravagance however by his burning need to have the fullest attainable vary of colors to do justice to the textual content.
The efficiency had constructive options but additionally some disappointments. The splendidly atmospheric Prelude is based upon two plainchant melodies: ‘Pange lingua’ and ‘Vexilla regis prodeunt’. Snatches of each hymns are sung by the semi refrain which had been positioned off to the perimeters. The singers, from the choir of Worcester Cathedral, sang very effectively and the impact of their unseen voices, coming from a distance, was excellently judged. The Worcester choristers went on to play an essential function in the remainder of the work.
The Hymn itself explodes into life with an amazing choral outburst, ‘Glory to Thee, Father’. This, and subsequent repetitions of the identical music, ought to pin the listener again in his or her seat. That impact wasn’t fairly achieved tonight. I’m not certain why. It might be that the Competition Refrain ideally wanted one other 20 or so voices to make the requisite influence on this acoustic however I puzzled if Hudson galvanised them sufficiently. Somewhat later, when the divine dance will get going (‘Divine grace is dancing’) the singing was good however I felt it wasn’t fairly incisive sufficient and lacked the final ounce of rhythmic spring. That stated, there have been some good issues from the Competition Refrain, not least the way in which through which a few of Holst’s most audacious and imaginative harmonies had been delivered (‘To you who gaze, a lamp am I’, for example). Disappointingly, the ending of the piece, which must be hushed and mysterious, was somewhat too loud. General, I felt that this was a creditable efficiency of The Hymn of Jesus even when it didn’t absolutely stay as much as my expectations.
The Stabat Mater is among the many sequence of considerable choral/orchestral works that Stanford composed within the late nineteenth- and early twentieth centuries for efficiency on the essential musical festivals which had been so distinguished in British musical life at the moment. Sadly, like a lot of his music (aside from his liturgical output), these choral works scarcely characteristic on live performance programmes these days. His Requiem, first carried out on the Birmingham Triennial Competition in 1897, is a noble work, as we are able to hear in Martyn Brabbins’ glorious current recording (overview right here). There may be additionally the Elegiac Ode, written for the 1884 Norfolk and Norwich Competition and the magnificent and substantial Te Deum, premiered on the Leeds Triennial Competition in 1898. I had by no means heard both work till they appeared collectively just lately on a really advantageous CD performed by Adrian Partington, one in all this week’s Three Choirs conductors; the Te Deum is a very essential discovery (overview right here). The Stabat Mater was additionally unveiled at a Leeds Competition, in 1907 – Stanford was the Leeds Competition conductor from 1898 till 1910. Like the opposite three aforementioned works, I’ve by no means had the possibility to listen to this work in live performance till now; I do know it solely by means of the 2 advantageous recordings performed by Richard Hickox and by David Hill. I used to be thrilled, due to this fact, once I discovered that Hudson had chosen it for this live performance. I made a acutely aware choice, although, to comply with my common follow when reviewing a live performance by not listening to both recording prematurely in order that I got here to this efficiency with recent ears.
Although they’re settings of liturgical texts, Stanford clearly designed each the Requiem and the Te Deum as live performance works. That’s true, too, of the Stabat Mater; certainly, Stanford made the live performance nature of this work significantly clear by designating it as a ‘Symponic cantata’. He set the entire of the medieval Latin textual content however since two of the work’s 5 actions are purely orchestral, this meant that he needed to compress a number of stanzas into every of the three vocal actions. A characteristic of the Stabat Mater is that Stanford doesn’t give his soloists any important aria-like passages to sing. Although the soprano has some distinguished solo passages, particularly, within the second motion, the quartet are inclined to sing as a unit, albeit with some transient solo alternatives. In all three vocal actions, the soloists and refrain have equal prominence: in his programme observe, the Stanford professional Jeremy Dibble rightly referred to ‘the operatic means Stanford treats his 4 soloists and the refrain as a putative turba’.
The singing on this efficiency was of a excessive order however I have to give equal prominence to the orchestra – as a result of that’s what Stanford does. The orchestra performs a massively essential function within the three vocal actions, including essential colourings and bringing out the thematic motifs which run by means of the rating The orchestra units the scene in a considerable Prelude which serves two functions: it establishes the darkly dramatic tone of a lot of the music to comply with – that is going to be a Large Piece (it lasts for some 45 minutes) – and it additionally introduces some thematic motifs that may recur later within the rating; not the least of those is an expansive, beneficiant melody first heard on the cellos. The third motion is entitled ‘Intermezzo’ however nobody must be deceived into pondering that this signifies a motion which is gentle in character. Quite the opposite, the music begins in dramatic vein and although it turns into extra lyrical in a while, the tone remains to be darkly imposing. Maybe this could not shock for the reason that motion comes instantly after the singers have sung the phrases ‘Dum emisit spiritum’ describing the dying of Christ. I believed the Philharmonia performed these two actions very effectively certainly – and Hudson performed the motion – and, certainly, the work as an entire – with a advantageous sense of the drama. The Philharmonia’s contribution to the entire efficiency was excellent.
The Competition Refrain got here extra into their very own within the Stanford. The dynamic contrasts, which hadn’t fairly been there within the Holst, had been way more in proof. I can’t imagine for a second that these achieved singers had been daunted in any means by the technical challenges of the Holst, however Stanford’s choral writing is, maybe, extra grateful to sing and the Competition Refrain did a advantageous job. They made glorious contributions all through, however nowhere extra so than within the last motion. Right here, Stanford begins with very dramatic music (‘Virgo virginum præclara’), transferring by means of to the depth of the Day of Judgement (‘In die judicii’). Hudson and his forces constructed this passage to a mighty climax, with the refrain giving their all. Then Stanford strikes seamlessly into the expansive, lyrical music to which he units the ultimate stanza of the poem. Right here, the poet speaks of the redemption of the soul (‘Paradisi gloria’) and Stanford units these phrases radiantly. The Competition Refrain right here provided heat, dedicated singing.
As I stated, there are not any important set piece solos for the quartet. All 4 soloists did effectively. Rebecca Hardwick provided ardent, engaged singing, although for my style the vibrato was overdone. The mezzo function is much less distinguished however Marta Fontanals-Simmons sang with heat and evident sincerity. Nicky Spence, one of the best recognized of the quartet, sang with the ring and lyrical ease that I’ve come to count on from this advantageous artist. I don’t assume I’ve heard baritone Themba Mvula earlier than; his singing was agency and guaranteed.
On the finish of the efficiency there was a welcome silence earlier than the viewers gave each work and efficiency the warmest reception of the night. I’ve waited one of the best a part of thirty years to listen to the Stabat Mater stay and I used to be delighted to take action by the use of this advantageous efficiency which, I believed, did Stanford proud. Within the final couple of years, I’ve had the chance to listen to a few Stanford’s operas (on CD). Neither has actually satisfied me and I’ve come more and more to really feel that he produced much better – and extra operatically dramatic – music in works such because the Requiem, the Te Deum and the Stabat Mater. This extremely dedicated efficiency cemented that view.
John Quinn
