28 March, Petersfield.
Was it coincidence or a clever pun? The Spanish Golden age to open the Renaissance Choir‘s Golden Jubilee season.
Confession time. Baroque and early music is my passion. I did a dissertation on Tudor Church Music, so unaccompanied Renaissance music is meat and drink to me.
It’s a Spanish menu, chaps, a nod to the choir’s origins and its founder Raymond Calcraft who made the journey from Devon to be with us. So no Monteverdi or Palestrina, no Byrd, Tallis or Gibbons. Peter was at pains to point out that Victoria ranks among the best of these, as do many of his contemporaries.
He, and the choir, then set out to prove just that. Victoria, and his Officium Defunctorum provided the pillars of the performance surrounded by music of his contemporaries – and the bonus. We all enjoy listening to polished professional ensembles like the Sixteen and the Tallis Scholars, but do we really appreciate Renaissance Choir? They are an amateur group, but their musicianship and sound equals, in some cases surpasses, that of some of these professionals. Their breath control and beauty of tone evoked the glory of the 16th century. All achieved by their own commitment and Peter’s sure hand on the tiller.
But what of the bonus? Ian Schofield, and Maggie Sawkins, 50th Anniversary commission – Songs of Hope. Another tour de force for Ian, combining the deft and appropriate setting of the words with an approachable modern idiom.
Then to wrap it all up? Bawdy street scenes. Zoe Barnett added a guitar contribution to these but had a more starring role earlier as she played a set of three contemporary pieces with delicacy and charm.
A great start to the 50th season – and Peter’s last. Not quite the end though, so here’s looking forward to July.
David Oldfield
And a few comments to our MD Peter from composer Ian Schofield:
“Just a brief note to say thank you very much for the wonderful premiere of Songs of Hope. I’ve always been impressed with the choir’s blended tone, but I did wonder how effective you would be in the more aggressive moments of the text. When I heard the first climactic event in the Casals O Vos Omnes (or ‘O Cos Omens, as predictive text would seem to want!) I thought that you would be very effective – and you were. You displayed a great dynamic range – throughout the concert, not just in Songs of Hope. All the solo moments were well done, and my thanks to those singers too. I thought that the use of ‘portamenti’ was a good idea and I shall be notating that into the score. It’s a challenging piece in places, but your performance was confident and convincing throughout. My congratulations to you all.”
“A great sound throughout the whole concert – some lovely soft singing, blended sound and all very sensitively sung. I think you’re passing a jewel onto your successor – he/she is very lucky.”
Images (c) Duncan Shepherd
