To hear the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, perform its Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols live in that city on Christmas Eve is an aspiration for many lovers of choral music – and it’s surprising how many Australians are among those who live the dream. It means braving a wintry, often snowy, England and a long queue for most of the day but it is well worth it for the ethereal sound of this choir in the centuries-old chapel with its distinctive fan vaulted ceiling and stained glass.
Melbourne this week provided the cold, if not the snow – and if not quite the famous Chapel, Elisabeth Murdoch Hall was an ambient space whose fine acoustics allowed the Choir to be heard at its best. Two programs are being featured in this tour for Musica Viva Australia, each with three carols by contemporary Australian composers and, in the one reviewed here, Purcell, Stanford and Monteverdi well represented. The generous program comprised:
William BYRD Sing Joyfully
Giovanni Pierluigi da PALESTRINA Dum complerentur
Thomas TALLIS Suscipe quaeso, Domine
Johann Sebastian BACH Duetto no 2 in F major, BWV803
Henry PURCELL Jehova, quam multi sunt hostes mei / I Was Glad When They Said unto Me
Claudio MONTEVERDI Adoramus te, Christe, SV289 / Cantate Domino canticum novum
Charles Villiers STANFORD A Song of Wisdom from Six Hymns/ A Song of Peace from Six Hymns op113
Charles Hubert Hastings PARRY From Songs of Farewell:
No 6 Lord, Let Me Know Mine End / No 5 At the Round Earth’s Imagined Corners
Peter SCULTHORPE The Birthday of Thy King
Brett DEAN Now Comes the Dawn
Carl VINE Ring Out, Wild Bells
Benjamin BRITTEN Hymn to St Cecilia, op 27
Byrd’s Sing Joyfully might well have been director Stephen Cleobury’s exhortation to the youthful Choir as the boys and men followed their strong attack with their trademark clarity and precision, and pure treble line. The Palestrina that followed added richness and depth to the sound, and featured the first of many admirable solos of the night.
The Choral Singers then demonstrated that there was much of interest in the lower voices, without having to rely on the trebles for the Choir’s distinctive sound in Tallis’s Suscipe quaeso, Domine. A masterpiece of polyphony, it entranced the listeners through to the lovely last note. Although in a different style, the organ piece Duetto by Bach echoed the beauty of the contrapuntal style, with an extended fugue in which the “duet” was between the organist’s left and right hands.
As Cleobury noted, the program then moved to works that were rich in their harmonic framework, with the first – Purcell’s Jehova – adding a fifth element in the organ continuo as the treble melody soared above the rest. The works by this English composer also served to show the crispness of the diction even at quite a brisk tempo.
The Monteverdi pieces extended awareness of the Choir’s harmonic strengths while also featuring extended notes and melodic lines weaving through the parts. The strength of those quintessential English composers, Stanford and Parry, was to provide the Choir with strong, moving songs that suited these singers very well. So it was commendable that they moved easily from “home territory” to the three Australian works (previously commissioned for Christmas performances at King’s).
Peter Sculthorpe’s The Birthday of Thy King had a sprightly sound to it (somewhat reminiscent of William G James’s well-loved carols). There was much here for the trebles to revel in, with a high-pitched refrain, “Away”, throughout. Brett Dean’s Now Comes the Dawn also had a beautiful treble solo in a very different piece, whose harmonic sound travelled slowly and ended in a quite ethereal way. Ring Out, Wild Bells by Carl Vine was instantly appealing, its rich harmonies and sonorous effect building to the great sound of “Ring out!”
Having conquered Australian music (and this audience) the Choir returned to familiar territory with Britten’s Hymn to St Cecilia for its final item. This celebratory hymn, with its dramatic contrasts, had within it all the elements that had been so pleasing in this program: intricate polyphony, drama, melodic interest with rich harmony – all sung by a Choir worth crossing the world to hear.
Cleobury and the singers had done the travelling this time, of course, but they had so drawn us into their world that, as we stepped out of the Recital Centre, I almost expected to hear the crunch of snow underfoot.
