Tag: Chapter House Youth Choir

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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on Chapter House Choirs & Jervaulx Singers, Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York, October 25

Conductor Benjamin Morris

THIS was a strange programme. Ostensibly a celebration of the Chapter House Choir’s upcoming 60th anniversary in December, it somehow morphed into marking the season of remembrance. Celebration and remembrance do not often make easy bedfellows.

Furthermore, the choir’s founder, Andrew Carter – who is also a distinguished choral composer – was in the audience. But he barely got a mention in the programme, was not invited to take a bow and had none of his works performed. Taken together, these were inexcusable omissions.

Judging by the programme, the two conductors involved were much more interested in furthering their own careers than seeing themselves as part of a noble chamber-choir tradition in York, which Chapter House Choir has spearheaded.

The nearest we came to a sense of celebration was in Roderick Williams’s setting of Siegfried Sassoon’s Everyone Sang, given a lusty account by the full forces here: the Chapter House Choir itself, the Chapter House Youth Choir and the octet Jervaulx Singers, making a grand total of nearly 60 singers, with Benjamin Morris conducting.

Otherwise, the mood was restrained, bordering on lugubrious, with mainly slow tempos. The full group opened with Arvo Pärt’s setting of Bogoroditse Djevo (the Russian Orthodox version of the ‘Hail, Mary’) and John Tavener’s take on it. Conducted by Charlie Gower-Smith, it was impressively sung by rote.

 He also directed the Youth Choir in Sullivan’s The Long Day Closes, which was nicely phrased even if its relevance here was doubtful.

The Chapter House Choir alone, under Morris, developed an excellent atmosphere in Elgar’s They Are At Rest, R.I.P. piece if ever there were. Rather less engaging was Owain Park’s Footsteps, which apparently uses texts by no less than nine different authors, but has a restricted harmonic palette that lends it a nebulous feel. It outstayed its welcome.

Jonathan Dove’s Into Thy Hands, sung by the Jervaulx Singers alone, was much more focused as a piece and well modulated.

Howells’ Requiem, a marvellous work, concluded the evening. For all its glories, it seemed out of keeping with the stated headline of celebration. But it was treated with considerable reverence: its smooth, prayerful invocation benefited from beautifully sustained lines.

Psalm 121, with a noble baritone solo, brought hope; sopranos were impassioned, not to say fearless, in the subsequent Requiem before the elegiac composure of the final bars. But let us hope that this is not the final celebration of Chapter House Choir’s anniversary.

Review by Martin Dreyer

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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on Bach’s St John Passion, English Touring Opera, York Theatre Royal, April 6

Luci Briginshaw: “Laudably managed to infuse musicality into her arias despite the speedy tempos”

WHEN Bach’s St John Passion is given during Lent, one expects an evening of concentration on Christianity’s central event, enhanced by the composer’s incomparable music.

Gratitude that English Touring Opera had scheduled this music at all during its spring tour – the first Bach passion here since the pandemic – quickly dissolved in the reality of what was involved in this ‘semi-staging’, directed by James Conway.

The theatre’s stage had been cleared to the back wall, which allowed York Theatre Royal Choir, augmented by the Chapter House Youth Choir, to fill the bleachers at the back, with 15 members of the Old Street Band spread across the stage in front of them, leaving soloists and conductor nearest the audience.

It did not matter that this was a hybrid performance, with choruses and arias sung in German and the chorales sung in English, in new translations specially commissioned from such as the former Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and the former Dean of Exeter, Dr Jonathan Draper. Some of their paraphrases were colourful.

What disfigured this performance were the antics of the conductor, Jonathan Peter Kenny. His flamboyant, grandiose gestures might be generously described as bordering on the balletic but were rarely less than manic. He was clearly determined that the evening was about him and him only.

Unwilling to be patronised by such histrionics, choir and orchestra paid him scant attention. The audience did not have that choice and the evening was best experienced with eyes closed. Even then, Kenny’s adrenaline regularly ran out of control so that tempos were mostly on the dangerous side of rapid.

When the ‘Kreuzige’ (Crucify) chorus, for example, is delivered prestissimo, it loses most of its impact, the singers given no time to crunch the ‘Kr’ or hiss the ‘z’ in the word ‘Kreuzige’ as Bach intended. Under this assault, the choirs survived remarkably well, with the Chapter House Youth providing an occasional semi-chorus in chorales. Any raggedness was inflicted from outside.

The Evangelist duties were mainly shared between Richard Dowling and Thomas Elwin, both highly competent, although cantering through their narratives with little regard to nuance. Peter’s weeping, for example, was cursory rather than deeply felt.

Occasionally the soprano Luci Briginshaw took on some of the recitative but whenever Jesus was in focus – at his death, for example – his character was entrusted to countertenor Tim Morgan. It was a directorial fancy and not altogether persuasive, but pardonable. Briginshaw laudably managed to infuse some musicality into her arias despite the speedy tempos.

Christus himself was sung rather matter-of-factly by Edward Hawkins, although he was not given much space to develop gravitas and he sang one aria with aplomb. By far the best German, and hence also the best characterisation, came from Bradley Travis, who gave a suitably weak-kneed Peter as well as a forthright Pilate.

There was a good deal of wandering around from the soloists, all of whom were dressed in everyday rig, accompanied by a fair amount of hugging and even hand-holding. None of it amounted to much dramatically.

The orchestra kept its cool remarkably, and duets from flutes and oboes were eloquent, with some lovely theorbo during the evening serenade in the garden and a cellist who doubled adeptly on gamba.

The musical benefits seemed to have been achieved despite, rather than because of, the conductor. If he is to be used again by this company, he must be firmly tethered in the pit where he is largely out of sight of the paying public. What he did at this performance was outrageous and totally out of keeping with the seriousness of the setting.

Review by Martin Dreyer

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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on Carols By Candlelight, Chapter House Choir, York Minster, December 15

Chapter House Choir musical director Benjamin Morris

WITHDRAWAL symptoms were widespread last year when Carols By Candlelight succumbed to Covid. For it has become a tradition without which no York Yuletide is complete.

This year it was back with a vengeance, transplanted from the Chapter House to the Nave of the Minster to allow a larger audience. Even if the candles did not flicker quite so intimately, the move was a resounding success: the building’s wide-open spaces were encouraged to co-operate.

Musical director Benjamin Morris had chosen a typically eclectic programme. Admirably, more than half of the 18 choral pieces were either composed or arranged by living musicians. In addition to the main choir, we enjoyed the Chapter House Youth Choir, conducted by Charlie Gowers-Smith, the traditional Handbell Ringers and three organ interludes from Asher Oliver.

The combined choirs opened with Andrew Carter’s tasteful arrangement of the Advent plainsong hymn, Veni Emmanuel, sung in procession. The Advent responsory that followed featured a beautifully crystalline soprano soloist (unnamed). Muscular contrasts came with Joubert’s Torches and in the crisp syncopation of Matthias’s arrangement of Sir Christèmas, the oldest carol here and reaching back to the 15th century.

At the other end of the spectrum, we had Master of the Queen’s Music Judith Weir’s setting of William Blake’s My Guardian Angel, with its cleverly repeating Alleluia, sung by the combined choirs. Even more atmospheric was Holst’s In The Bleak Midwinter, with the alternating choirs widely spaced. The sweet harmonies of Sally Beamish’s In The Stillness stood up well alongside Warlock’s tasty Bethlehem Down.

The choir’s final group was the best of all. After tenderly caressing The Shepherds’ Farewell, from Berlioz’s ‘L’enfance du Christ’, there was a lovely calm in Nicola LeFanu’s Saint Ita’s Lullaby and much feeling in Rutter’s melodious Candlelight Carol. We finished as we began, with founder-director Andrew Carter’s Make We Merry, spirited and heart-warming.

Along the way, the Handbell Ringers brought their mystifying skills to bear on four numbers, with Carter’s arrangement of Good King Wenceslas and John Hastie’s of We Wish You A Merry Christmas drawing especially warm applause.

The Youth Choir launched into the Vaughan Williams arrangement of the Yorkshire Wassail with special vigour. Oliver’s three contributions were gracefully restrained – we might have had a little more in the way of fireworks – although he had to do battle with a reed stop on the newly-restored organ speaking rather less than cleanly.

At ten minutes less than two hours despite no interval, the concert might have been a touch shorter for audience comfort in the chill, but it was wonderfully energising to have this great tradition back where it belonged.

Review by Martin Dreyer

Next performance by Chapter House Choir: Festival of Carols, St Michael-le-Belfrey, York, December 18, 7.30pm.