The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus was the feature of Saturday afternoon’s concert, “Coronation Anthems”, at Hamer Hall. This revealing performance demonstrated the continuing tradition of British massed-choral singing embedded in the DNA of Australia’s choral sound. The Chorus was accompanied by a selection of players and sessional musicians of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and conducted by chorus master Warren Trevelyan-Jones. This concert paid homage to the Ceremonial tradition of British Royal Coronations – the most recent being the Coronation of King Charles III in 2023. The MSO Chorus and Orchestra executed a diverse program of anthems from the early 1600s until this century in a program sequence that tastefully inserted selections of Royal ceremonial choral music across the ages between Handel’s four Coronation Anthems.
The British monarchy’s role in the 21st century as a cultural and national institution is astutely reflected in the music of recent royal ceremonies. As both a preserver of tradition and an evolving institution, the idea of ceremony with its symbolism, occasion and majesty have always been elevated by the presence of music. The diversity of creative voices and musical traditions were on full display at the Coronation of King Charles III. The varied selections of choral repertoire in this concert illustrate the current monarch’s role as both a preserver of tradition, cultural and religious pluralist in an evolving institution.
As an exemplar of cultural plurality, George Frideric Handel infused the British choral tradition with his distinctive fusion of German contrapuntal rigor, Italianate vocal brilliance, and English grandeur. His use of orchestral colour, dynamic contrasts, and layered choral textures elevated English ceremonial music in the 18th century, providing a model for all future coronation services. The MSO Chorus was exemplary in its ensemble singing in the tutti sections of all movements, displaying a unified, clear balanced sound in the homophonic delivery of texts. Textual clarity was never an issue here, as was general confidence in polyphonic entries across all movement of this work of great contrasts of ceremony, pomp, humility and grandeur. Of note, the anthem “Let Thy Hand Be Strengthened” demonstrated the choir’s attendance to conductor Warren Trevelyan-Jones’ detailed preparation and matching of text to musical articulation in the Allegro in accents on “exalted”. Also present was the characteristic word painting that marked Handel as a skilled setter of texts in the Larghetto. The beauty of the Australian choral sound lies in a lighter, more transparent sound – much like English cathedral choirs. Australian choirs often emphasise a floating, clear tone, especially in treble voices. There is a freshness to the Australian choral sound that is youthful, clear with an almost lifted quality and this was an asset in the performance of Handel’s anthems.
Three young soloists from the Melba Opera Trust were featured in the first half of this concert and were a delightful, if somewhat brief addition. The MSO chorus was first joined by soprano Eden Shifroni in a performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ communion motet, “O Taste and See”, which featured at the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. Shifroni’s opening solo was a beautifully phrased melody that was executed with a naturally focused tone. Tenor Damian Arnold demonstrated careful control of his mid-register, taking a cantor role in Australian composer William McKie’s anthem, “We wait for thy loving kindness”. The anthem’s serene and reverent character was sung just before the Queen’s anointing, a deeply sacred moment in the coronation ceremony. McKie, who was Master of the Choristers and Organist of Westminster Abbey, writes for the time – an anthem in the Anglican tradition. Bass Jack Bolton’s impressive delivery of the Welsh text in Paul Mealor’s setting of the Kyrie was unassumingly commanding yet attentive to the overall reverent character of the music. Mealor was one of three other composers featured in this concert who wrote music specifically for the coronation of King Charles III. The King is an avid champion of Welsh language and culture, and this commission reflects the United Kingdom’s multicultural origins. The presence of the onstage organ played by Timothy Mallis gave this motet a solid foundation from which soloist and choir surged forth with increasing resonance and grandeur to a satisfying climax.
The two subsequent original works performed in this concert displayed some unique voices of Contemporary British Choral Music. The MSO chorus performance of Tarik O’Regan’s “Coronation Agnus Dei” demonstrated a masterful balance and control of triadic harmony, particularly in the held chords that evoked a sense of celestial weightlessness. The choir struggled somewhat in the underscoring of Roxanna Panufnik’s “Coronation Sanctus”. Panufnik is a composer of Polish heritage who infuses her music with a deeply rich and varied tonal palette and is inspired by varied religious and cultural traditions from Eastern Europe and the Middle East. The colouristic effects were a little smudged by a lack of tonal centredness in this performance. A stroke of genius in today’s programming demonstrated a simpatico of musical form and style across centuries with the addition of Thomas Weelkes’ Tudor a cappella anthem “O Lord, Grant the King a Long Life”. The MSO Chorus evoked the youthful dalliance of the English madrigal in their performance of this anthem that featured imitative counterpoint and rhythmic vitality. As a spiritual forebear to the minimalist style, imitative polyphony is something this choir executes with clarity and balance on the most part.
The concert’s final additions were from the traditional canon of works that always feature in British Royal Coronation ceremonies. The choir’s performance was confident and stately though struggled at times to maintain the grandeur of this work – a work composed for the coronation of King Edward VII to reflect continuing legacy of national pride, and optimism of the Edwardian era that succeeded the Victorian Era. The MSO Chorus’s strength is in its freshness clarity of tone in combined sections, where they succeed in an exuberant performance Handel’s Coronation “Zadok the Priest”, accompanied by a suitably crisp string section of the MSO. This allowed the addition of the brass section to unite with the choir and ensemble in a rousing finale, leaving the audience at Hamer Hall suitably enamoured by the spirit of the occasion.
Photo supplied.
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Stephen Marino reviewed “Coronation Anthems” by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Chorus at Hamer Hall on March 29, 2025.
