Newbury choir rises to Wilcox’s Ceremony of Psalms challenge magnificently
Newbury Chamber Choir
at St Mary’s Church, Kintbury
on Saturday, June 15
Review by BARNABY WHEELER
Newbury Chamber Choir, directed by Ben de Souza, took their mid-summer concert out west to St Mary’s Church Kintbury with its prettily painted roof and abundance of monuments, not to mention its fine organ and acoustic.
If some of their regulars did not make it there to join them, it was definitely their loss, it was a creatively original programme of contrasting French and English halves, greatly enjoyed by those that did.
Who knew that the great French organist Louis Vierne was virtually blind or that he actually died at the organ of Notre Dame? Fortunately Steve Bowey survived the evening playing St Mary’s organ with consummate sensitivity.
An introductory Berceuse from Vingt-quatre pièces en style libre lulled us with its gentle rocking figure in rich colours peppered with the odd subtle dissonance. This moved on to the dramatic opening of Vierne’s Messe Solennelle where the full power of the organ abruptly woke us from imminent slumber. Was this volume going to drown out the choir? Well, no, the organ instantly changes down a gear for the tenor-led Kyrie which, like the whole mass is rich with musical colour, reminding us that by1899 French impressionism in painting ruled the world.
This work is a conversation between choir and organ and throughout the performance the balance between the two was perfect. The choir sang with tight ensemble and rhythmic precision in the Gloria, and in the Sanctus, solo lines passed seamlessly from voice to voice over solemn ruminations on the organ.
The highlight of the English half of the concert was Benjamin Britten’s extraordinary Rejoice in the Lamb which sets verses by the eccentric eighteenth century poet Christopher Smart. Elizabeth Cullen sang ‘my cat Jeoffry’ with angelic purity, Peter Hicks sang the ‘Male mouse’, Gordon Fry was romantic with flowers and James Gooding magisterially robust with the sanctity of the alphabet and the power of music to conquer malignity.
David Wilcox’s less commonly performed Ceremony of Psalms is tricky rhythmically containing all the former director of King’s College Cambridge’s choir stock-in-trade tricks. The choir rose to the challenge magnificently.
