Reviews

Sounds and Sweet Airs at the Lighthouse, Poole

(Four stars out of five) As a nine-year-old schoolboy I wasn’t much interested in Shakespeare’s 400th birthday, and I will need to live to 109 to see his 500th. So I’m grateful that, in Poole at least, they are celebrating his 450th with what passes in Dorset for frenzy. I’m not sure what Shakespeare’s connection with the Bournemouth area was — but it must have been huge, because this concert of more than a dozen pieces inspired by his plays and poems was an epic community effort.

Before the interval the excellent Kokoro (the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s new music group) and Mark Forkgen’s London choir Canticum presented modern pieces. In the second half the spirited Dorset Youth Orchestra and Bournemouth Symphony Chorus resuscitated rather more tuneful Shakespearean scores (Walton, Vaughan Williams, Finzi) from the earlier 20th century. And whenever the music stopped, drama students from Arts University Bournemouth hurled out blank verse with irresistible fervour. For a while the Poole Lighthouse was as theatrically charged as the Globe. Highlights? Though they echoed Britten at times, Hywel Davies’s new Five Shakespeare Sonnets, eloquently sung by Lawrence Williams, were intelligent responses to the texts, with mellow, elegiac instrumental colours. Much more vivid, and superbly played by Kokoro, were Thomas Adès’s quirky and fantastical Court Studiesfrom The Tempest. And Oliver Knussen’s early Ophelia Dances, with its sudden move from manic movement to tragic stillness, still strikes me as a miniature masterpiece.

For sumptuous beauty, however, not even Vaughan Williams’sSerenade to Music could match the unaccompanied choral pieces with which Canticum opened the programme: Our Joyful’st Feastby Einojuhani Rautavaara. In an otherwise all-British programme the Finn’s mellifluous harmonies were a timely reminder that, from Berlioz and Mendelssohn to Verdi and Prokofiev, most of the greatest Shakespeare music has been written by foreigners.

They don't have many nights of heavy-duty contemporary music in Bournemouth.  But when they do, my gosh, they really pile it on.  This epic concert, given by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra's fine new-music group Kokoro and the mellifluous London choir Canticum, contained no fewer than five substantial pieces of new or recent music.

But, perhaps because we were sitting in the glorious Victorian church where Hubert Parry was baptised and Mary Shelley resides in the graveyard, we were also given lush choral works by Elgar and Parry.  Indeed, only the severe and apparently unanticipated length of Marc Yeats's Shadow, and the Moon saved us from Bax as well.

Listening to Yeats's piece, for six instruments, was like stepping back 90 years to the heyday of serialism.  Much of it was like Webern, but without the brevity.   I found the dense interplay of motives gripping at first, and the piece was shaped persuasively - violent outbursts interspersed with passages in which the music seemed to dissipate into silence.  But half the length would have produced twice the impact.

Still, it was admirably delivered by Kokoro under Mark Forkgen.  And they also gave persuasive performances of James MacMillan's jagged and astringent The Road to Ardtalla and Stephen McNeff's Lux - evoking eight qualities of light (including the absence of it) in a kaleidoscopic whirl of clever instrumentation that passed through passages of quasi-Romantic yearning and a 7/4 stomp before ending in the sepuchral stasis of lux aeterna.

However, it was the most traditional of the evening's new pieces that most held my attention.  Geoffrey Burgon, who died last year, always felt that his music had been unjustly maligned because it was tonal and crafted along unsensational, old-fashioned lines.  Well, perhaps a posthumous re-evaluation is on the way, because his unaccompanied choral cantata, Songs between the Soul and the Bridegroom, proved to be a work of quiet intensity and thoughtfulness.

It set love poems by Burgon's favourite poet, the 16th-century mystic St John of the Cross, in a lush, lyrical but never obvious way that infused the words with colour but always allowed them to come across clearly.  Canticum could have widened the dynamic range a little - it was all rather mezzo this and that - but to sustain this 25-minute piece with such impeccable intonation and blend was a good effort.

Kokoro: The Living Tradition, St. Peter's Church, Bournemouth

PROJECTING the Living Tradition theme right into the 21st century with two new works and honouring Sir Dan Godfrey (now resting in St. Peter’s graveyard) whose enterprise brought composers such as Parry and Elgar to Bournemouth to conduct their own music.

Parry was baptised in this very church and from his Songs of Farewell Canticum gave a sublime performance of My Soul there is a Country. Their breathtaking excellence was also accorded to Elgar’s Lux aeterna, a choral arrangement by James Cameron of ‘Nimrod’.

Set between these was the premiere of Marc Yeats’ shadow, and the moon. Yeats’ described this work as “not abrasive”, and programme notes referred to recycling musical material.

I’m sure there wasn’t a single bum note from Kokoro, but as for recycling, my tip is; go for the ultimate!

Stephen McNeff’s Lux showed a nicely integrated work for octet; well constructed, effective and of considerable substance.

The premiere of the late Geoffrey Burgon’s Songs between the Soul and the Bridegroom sets a most touchingly conceived love poem with imaginative simplicity, taking nothing from the text, and here given a definitive performance by Canticum.

The Road to Ardtalla by James MacMillan is a rocky one. Maybe he hopes it will add to the ‘cultural heritage’ of Islay, but until I’ve also visited the place and taken a wee dram of its famous whiskey, I’ll reserve my opinion. Whereas I unreservedly welcome his A Child’s Prayer.
Stunning!

Carol concert for Charitable Trust - 01 March 2010

Worshipful Company joins forces to raise £4,000 for the Cure Parkinson's Trust

The Worshipful Company of Actuaries has held its annual carol service at St. Lawrence Jewry for many years, but last Christmas switched to the Church of St. Bartholomew the Great, with joint hosts the Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards. St. Bartholomew is a magnificent building, and is the oldest surviving church in the City of London, dating from the year 1123.

Over 200 people attended the concert, mostly actuaries and their guests. They were marvellously entertained by the Canticum Choir and joined in heartily when invited. The choir sang a wide range of seasonal songs, from traditional carols to Palestrina and Rutter, and were truly inspirational.

After the concert, mince pies and wine were served. Tickets to the concert were sold in aid of charity, with the additional generosity of sponsors Barnett Waddingham, CMS Cameron McKenna, Lazard Asset Management and SCOR, who covered a significant proportion of the costs of holding the event. £4,000 will be paid to The Cure Parkinson’s Trust via the Company of Actuaries Charitable Trust. 

A CHRISTMAS CAROL
Meridian Records CDE 84463
Recorded by John Shuttleworth
Producer: Gary Skyrme

Iain Burnside, on BBC Radio 3's "CD Review", said:

"...Better by far to save your pennies for a Carol recording with some real Xmas Spirit - a disc by the chamber choir Canticum and their conductor Mark Forkgen. I’m happy to give it the big thumbs up not just because of the polish and refinement of the singing, but because all its profits will go to a branch of the Samaritans."

"And surely even Ebeneezer Scrooge himself would be touched by something in the course of these 24 generous tracks."

Canticum’s contribution to the Chelsea Festival’s recent re-creation of Pink Floyd’s Atom Heart Mother was, quite simply, superb. The piece is by no means conventional and requires a great deal of flexibility from its vocal forces, but Canticum delivered on every level. Exceptionally fine, strong singing and very convincing ‘extended’ vocal techniques.

The conductor Mark Forkgen delivered a passionate performance, leading the period music specialists: Counterpoint to deliver a very moving account of Haydn’s monumental score. Gone are the days of 120 instrumentalists hammering the life out of this work, instead we have near reverential playing and musical introspection. This is equally true of the respected chamber choir: Canticum, who delivered their mighty choruses, especially “The heavens are telling the glory of God” with fervent passion.

Anthony Lias, Opera Britannia commenting on the performance of Haydn’s The Creation, at the closing concert of the 2009 Chichester Festival

[Canticum] sounds stunning. The show receives a standing ovation from a packed house of 900 people.

Jim Irwin, The Word Magazine commenting on the performance of Atom Heart Mother featuring David Gilmour, at the opening concert of the 2008 Chelsea Festival.

THE TIMES – CHELSEA FESTIVAL, ATOM HEART MOTHER
Dominic Maxwell, 19 June 2008, 4 stars ****
Atom Heart Mother at Cadogan Hall, SW1
Read on The Times Website

Rock meets classical, anyone? Anyone at all? Hello-o? Thirty-eight years since Pink Floyd recorded Atom Heart Mother, a 27-minute mix of pop, brass, cello and choir, this acme of prog rock retains a murky reputation. It gave the band their first No 1 album, boosted by its iconic cover shot of a cow. But even the boys themselves have since prodded at the album’s carcass with disdain. “Atom Heart Mother is a good case, I think, for being thrown into the dustbin and never listened to by anyone ever again,” the bassist Roger Waters said in the Eighties. “Absolute crap,” agreed the soft-spoken guitarist David Gilmour a decade later.

Well, a chap can change his mind, can’t he? On Sunday Gilmour was the star guest at the second of two concerts by Ron Geesin as part of this year’s Chelsea Festival. Geesin, the Scottish composer who came up with the orchestral parts of Atom Heart Mother, provided an appealingly odd first half. There were new pieces he had written for the Royal College of Music Brass Ensemble and for the vocal ensemble Canticum; Geesin on the banjo with cellist Caroline Dale; Geesin on marimba, piano and banjo and, oh yes, Geesin reading out some aphorisms. He’s a one-off, all right, even if he doesn’t half keep reminding you about it.

But it was the second half we were waiting for, and it was a revelation. Atom Heart Mother, as Geesin admitted, has its longueurs. But as Gilmour joined Mun Floyd, an Italian Pink Floyd tribute band, to play this epic alongside the classicists, it began to feel less like an affably overambitious period piece and more like a genuinely audacious and affecting piece of music. If Gilmour felt at all dubious about a track he first recorded as a 24-year-old — too young to know that such a rich mix of blues and brass and musique concrète is Not A Good Idea — it didn’t show in his playing. On form, there is no more lyrical electric guitarist alive. When he played his slide guitar in particular, it felt as if he was playing directly on the heartstrings. Behind him, the hairy boys of Mun Floyd played perfect re-creations. The brass lacked a fraction of the original’s bluster, perhaps, but Dale and the 25-strong choir helped to make a performance that exceeded its source material.

The emotional content emerged from this bold, not so say foolhardy, form like never before. The result? A performance that made this combination of elements feel natural and vital. A fabulous achievement.

Canticum is one of those groups that make a composer’s life so much happier! Not only is one guaranteed accurate and disciplined musicianship, but there is an individual dedication from each member of the choir which results in highly intelligent interpretations and committed performances. One of our outstanding ensembles – and with a real understanding of contemporary music.

GUARDIAN – HUGH WOOD TENEBRAE
Andrew Clements, 7 November 2007, 4 stars ****
Canticum/Kokoro/Forkgen
Read on The Guardian Website

Composer Hugh Wood and poet Geoffrey Hill are exact contemporaries - born just days apart in 1932 - and close friends. Hill dedicated his most recent book of poetry to Wood, while Wood has made choral settings of a sequence of poems from Hill's earlier collection, Tenebrae. The cycle was completed in 2003, but remained unperformed until this concert, when the chamber choir Canticum with Kokoro, the Bournemouth Symphony's new-music ensemble, conducted by Mark Forkgen, made the premiere of Tenebrae the centrepiece of their programme celebrating Wood's 75th birthday.

As the title suggests, the mood of the sequence Wood chose - laced with Christian imagery - was dark, introspective, often disappointed, and his choral versions are always keen to let the words express themselves. The instrumental commentary was spare - two of the eight choruses were entirely unaccompanied, while two solo settings, for baritone and tenor, were each combined with just a single instrumental line. A duet for soprano and alto, the most sensuously delicate moment in the cycle, was intertwined with flute and viola. Full chorus and the whole nine-piece ensemble only came together for the final two poems, but even here everything was restrained, completing a cycle that never tried to be simplistically illustrative, but left listeners to tease out what meaning they could from Hill's impacted imagery.

Alongside this wonderfully careful performance, and similarly well prepared accounts of unaccompanied choral works by Jonathan Harvey and John Tavener, Forkgen conducted the premiere of The Miraculous Mandolin, a short ensemble piece by a Wood pupil Stephen Pratt. There was also Peter Maxwell Davies's Tenebrae Super Gesualdo, a sombre 1972 sequence of meditations on a motet, which seemed the most perfectly judged melding of 17th- and 20th-century musics.

English Choir Thrills Cathedral Audience

It was quite an occasion. On Saturday 4 August, the London choir Canticum came to Coutances Cathedral for an exceptional concert. The performance was organised by Amicale Culturelle Européenne, which promotes cultural relations between French and English residents, as well as those of other nationalities, living in the Manche area. The concerts they organise are generally held in civic venues or sites of major cultural importance and therefore, after having sung in the Abbey of Cerisy-la-Foret and the Sainte-Mere-Église Church, the British group took over Notre-Dame on 4th August.

Conducted by Mark Forkgen, the choir performed extracts of works by Bach, Monteverdi, Debussy, Rachmaninov, Brahms, Britten and Messiaen amongst others, in this technically brilliant and sensitively presented concert.

In the sixteen years since its formation, Canticum has built up a reputation as one of the best chamber choirs in Great Britain. Renowned for its interpretation of contemporary music, it has also taken its domestic success abroad. The choir has toured several times in Italy, singing in St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome.

For its Coutances appearance, Canticum benefited from logistical help from the Friends of the Cathedral.

The evening changed my musical vistas forever. Don’t miss out!

A HYMN TO THE VIRGIN
Meridian Records CDE 84418
Recorded by John Shuttleworth
Producer: Gary Skyrme

Organists' Review (May 2000) wrote:

"Well, here is another cracker of a recording. Another themed programme and certainly not the first I have reviewed based on Marian texts, and what truly lovely music it all is. Canticum is a mixed voice chamber choir founded in 1989, based at the Temple Church. Early directors included Timothy Brown and Hilary Davan Wetton. Canticum sing with exquisite control and refinement, especially in the a cappella pieces. A high spot has to be the Litanies of Poulenc where the choir’s expressive and at times impassioned singing is complemented by the organ accompanying of Peter Barley. I was left wondering where this recording had taken place (information not readily available on the sleeve), but certainly somewhere with a lively yet warm acoustic and a decent sized instrument." [It was recorded at Temple Church]

"The Panufnik Song to the Virgin Mary is a substantial piece which was commissioned for the Lake District Festival in 1964; what a hard opening for the sopranos - such a haunting theme, which is then reworked and harmonised in an increasingly complex manner leading to a huge climax. This piece alone is sure testimony to the abilities of this choir and its director. After this I was left a little apprehensive at the thought of yet another recording of the Coll Reg, but I was not disappointed - the performance which finishes the disc is magisterial in style - if perhaps a little lacking in urgency at the start. A small criticism, I think of the recording as opposed to the choir, is that the sopranos’ higher notes tend to sound just a little thin at times - and this was especially noticeable in the Gloria where the voices split. Small criticism though of what is a fine disc, warmly recommended."