The Manchester University Symphony Orchestra and Chorus this evening were gathered within the mock gothic splendour of The Whitworth Hall in Manchester University's main building. The venue is only a stone's throw away from their performance home and base of The Martin Harris Centre, but this was something a little bit more special, and since the orchestra was being joined by a massed choir, more room was also needed.
Before the showpiece of the title however, the first half of the concert featured four shorter works. The first two for the string orchestra (including percussion). The brass and woodwind sections had been given the night off!. The following two were for a cappella chorus.
The concert started with Vaughan William's 'Fantasia On A Theme By Thomas Tallis', which although is a hauntingly beautiful piece; lyrical, serene and melodious; it hardly woke the audience up, and so was a rather odd choice to begin with. Conducted by Robert Guy, the orchestra sounded wonderful, although I did wonder why a few of the instrumentalists had been separated and were playing on the balcony behind the choir. There was, as far as I could hear at the rear of the auditorium, absolutely no aural advantage to this, and it wasn't a case of needing the room, since they joined the main orchestra for the subsequent pieces.
The Vaughan Williams was followed by a much more contemporary piece of string / percussion writing. Estonian composer Arvo Part's 'Cantus In Memory Of Benjamin Britten'. Obviously the two pieces being played side by side have a rather ingenious link; one famous composer paying musical homage to another. Part's composition however was a soundscape of noise with tubular bells and loud persussive bangs between thickly orchestrated strings. This piece was conducted by a student.
Once we had waited for the orchestra to leave the stage, and staying in the Baltic, we listened to the university chorus tackle a rather difficult piece of writing from the pen of Latvian composer Eriks Esenvalds, 'Stars'. A rather experiemntal piece using tuned wine glass accompaniment - deftly delivered from the rear balcony by members of the orchestra, thus giving an ethereal, other-worldly sound to the music, underscoring the vocalists in a way a traditional musical instrument wouldn't be able to; a colder and less dense effect than even a single solo string. The cummulative choral sound here was impressive, and nicely controlled by another student conductor.
The third and final student conductor came in for the fourth piece, and this was a truly a cappella song - wine glasses had been taken away, and we were left only with the clarity and sonority of the choir themselves. This was American composer Morten Lauridsen's 'O Magnum Mysterium'.
For the first half of a concert programme I would suggest that these pieces were all to similar to be performed together. Mostly slow (andante at best), and rarely did the volume get above an mf except in the Arvo Part. Moreover, despite there being countless notices posted throughout the hall and entrance-way, I don't think many people had downloaded (or read) the programme from the QR code, since no-one knew it was the interval until one enterprising young chorister came forward to announce it as such.
After the interval, and the title piece of the concert, a world premiere performance of John Casken's 'Light Into My Dark'. Commissioned by Manchester University, Casken's cantata lasts 28 minutes and requires a mezzo-soprano solo, who this evening was Katie Bray. In Casken's own programme notes of the work, he states that taking the poetry of Kathleen Raine and setting it to music was part of a long on-going process for him as he continues to explore the musical posibilities that the Northumbrian landscape and people have to offer. And the piece certainly showed off the wild and inhospitable side of the coastline from both chorus and orchestra, whilst Bray sang about incarnation, birth and the metaphysical mysteries of creation.
Bray proved to be an excellent choice of soloist, as her diction was clear and the quality of sound pure and carried nicely across the hall to the rear where I was seated. The only unfortunate thing here was that when the orchestra was playing fortissimo, she was sadly drowned out.
I can also honestly say, hand on heart, that I don't think I have ever heard the violin section of the MUMS orchestra play as well as they did this evening. Guy's conducting brought out the very best from them, and there was a true ensemble feel to the whole cantata.
This was not an easy-to-listen-to concert in any form. Much was required on the part of the audience in both halves of this evening's concert, and I for one was longing for something a little lighter and more familiar in order to regain and recover before challenging my intellectual responses further. However, both chorus and orchestra tackled these works with skill, understanding and approbation, and I therefore can do nothing else other than take my hat off to you all. Congratulations.
Matthew Dougall
on - 3.12.22
on - 3.12.22
No comments:
Post a Comment