As part of the day-long Manchester Song Festival, the afternoon highlight was most certianly a performance of a rarely performed cantata by Benjamin Britten, 'Saint Nicolas'.
The story of the cantata revolves around the 4th century Bishop of Myra in Asia Minor, and not, as you might have thought anything to do with Christmastime. Little is known of this particular St Nicolas, and the work, in 9 movements, gives us facts, but mostly legends about his life and work.
Written for the centenary celebrations of Lansing College [Peter Piers was a pupil there and Piers sang the solo tenor role in the cantata] the work was premiered in 1948, and was Britten's first composition for amateur performers, hence the rather odd scoring of the piece: organ, piano duet, percussion, strings, tenor solo, mixed choir and children's choir (with a couple of short solo passages for treble voice).
I knew nothing of the cantata prior to my visit to The Stoller Hall this afternoon and had never heard any of the work before either, and what I heard was absolutely delightful. Listening to the piece as I was doing this afternoon for the first time I could hear a very eclectic and varied array of compositional styles being sardined next to each other... we had a little influenced from the Baroque period, a little from the Classical, most from the early 20th century British "style" reminiscent of composers like Walton, Tippett and even Elgar, as well as folk melodies, children's jingles, and pompous hymn music. In the hands of any lesser composer this pot-pourri would have sounded awful and been an utter disaster.. but Britten's mastery and conviction, as well as his brilliance at song-writing, shone through and the work was delightfully playful when it should have been and solemn and imperious when it needed to be. There were even two hymns which the audience were encouraged to sing along with too. The first I knew, a reworking of the hymn tune commonly called 'The Old 100th', with music taken from a psalter dating from 1551, whilst the final hymn to close the cantata was unknown to me.
The musicians and all the choir members this afternoon were all students of Chetham's School Of Music [the music school which surrounds the Stoller Hall], and they were in superb voice. Especial mention to the young boy choristers who sang their short solos, and also to the ensemble leader and first violinist, who had a couple of solo sections within the orchestrations and played them beautifully. The beauty of the choir was nowhere better showcased than in the 8th movement titled, 'His Piety And Marvellous Works', which was lyrical and sonorous.
The tenor solo this afternoon was sung with meaning and dexterity by Nicky Spence. His very English vowels and superb articulation / diction gave his singing a brightness and cripsness whilst his vocal timbre was mellow and powerful. A sheer delight to listen to.
The whole being under the baton of a punctilious and enigmatic conductor Marcus Farnsworth, this was an absolutely splendid concert, and a perfect way to spend a blustery Sunday afternoon. If Chetham's / Stoller Hall produce another Song Festival next year, then I must try and come along for the whole day.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 1/3/20
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