An expertly performed Choral Fantasia by the ORA Singers at the Three Choirs Festival

United KingdomUnited Kingdom Three Choirs Festival 2023 [7] – A Choral Fantasia: Oriel Singers, ORA Singers / Suzi Digby (conductor). Gloucester Cathedral, 26.7.2023. (JQ)

The combined choirs singing Spem in alium © Dale Hodgetts

Byrd – Ave verum corpus
Plainchant – Spem in alium
TallisSpem in alium
Byrd Ad Dominum cum tribularer
Roxanna PanufnikKyrie After Byrd
TallisWhy fum’th in fight
Vaughan Williams (arr. Greg Murray)Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
Byrd Rorate caeli
MacMillanLux aeterna
Hildegard of BingenO viridissima Virga
Janet WheelerAlleluia, I heard a voice
Roderick WilliamsAve verum corpus Re-imagined
Plainchant – Spem in alium
Vaughan WilliamsRest

After the thrilling tumult of Francis Pott’s A Song on the End of the World the previous evening (review), this concert of a cappella choral music offered a very pleasing contrast.

A consistent hallmark of the ORA Singers’ programming, whether on CD or in concert, has been their mission to juxtapose Renaissance polyphony and music of our own time. Often, this mission has involved the commissioning of new works in which a contemporary composer is invited to reflect upon a specific polyphonic piece: many very fine new works have resulted and tonight a small selection from the large and growing list of ORA Singers commissions was included. I have long admired the group’s work but always through CDs; until tonight I would never had the chance to hear them live.

The concert began with the ORA Singers offstage. From the north transept we heard them sing Byrd’s Ave verum corpus. This is a gem of a work anyway, but hearing this immaculate performance sung from a distance and out of sight brought an extra magic. Then the male singers began the plainchant Spem in alium which they sang offstage while the other members of the choir processed onto the stage. There, waiting for them, were the members of the excellent local chamber choir, the Oriel Singers. Both groups combined for Tallis’s great forty-part motet, Spem in alium. The eight five-part choirs were arranged in a U-shape on the platform and this made it quite easy to hear the musical divisions when some choirs were singing and others were not. The combined choirs gave a very good performance of the work. Just once, about a third of the way through, I had a suspicion, perhaps wrongly, that the performance flagged slightly; but that might have been because the writing was at that point down to one or two choirs; the singing soon regathered strength and momentum. When all the choirs were singing, the full majesty of Tallis’s conception was plain to hear. After this, the Oriel Singers left the stage; this was their sole contribution – and a very good one. I wished it had been possible to also include James MacMillan’s magnificent forty-part Vidi aquam, commissioned by the ORA Singers as a direct response to the Tallis; I am sure, though, that this would have been quite impractical to prepare simultaneously in London and Cheltenham, bringing the two groups together not long before the concert. As it was, the combination of the two choirs worked well tonight.

In the year that we mark the 400th anniversary of the death of William Byrd, it was good that more of his music followed the Tallis. His eight-part Ad Dominum cum tribularer was given a fine performance in which the polyphony was clearly heard. I was conscious, though, that in such works dynamic contrast isn’t a key element in the performing style. Byrd was the springboard for Roxanna Panufnik’s piece: her Kyrie after Byrd was a commissioned response to the Kyrie from the Tudor master’s Mass for five voices. I believe it was one of the ORA Singers’ earliest commissions; it was recorded on ‘Upheld by Stillness’, one of their first CDs (review). Panufnik recognisably uses Byrd’s music as a starting point but then explores his Kyrie in very interesting, decidedly contemporary harmonic language.

To end the first half, we heard Greg Murray’s arrangement for unaccompanied voices of Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis and as an apt prelude to it, Tallis’s original melody, Why fum’th in fight was sung. Of course, VW’s masterpiece for strings was first heard in this very building back in 1910. For this performance the choral forces were divided into two choirs of what seemed like equal sizes; four solo singers (SSTB?) were positioned in the centre, standing on the tiered staging and so above the other singers. Murray set some of VW’s music to words, which he had selected from Psalms 6 and 26; in addition, at key points he inserted the words of the ‘Kyrie’. However, often the singers sang wordlessly, which was sensible. Actually, at least in this acoustic, the words were not easily discernible and it seemed to me that the text functioned more as pegs on which to hang music.

In this performance, the use of the four solo voices was effective in those passages where VW’s original version required distancing. The left-right separation of the two choirs also produced enlightening spatial effects. I thought that Suzi Digby’s beat – and therefore the phrasing of the music – seemed rather unvarying at first, but from the first intervention of the four solo voices onwards a much better flexibility was evident. I suppose I should put my cards on the table: I have never warmed to choral arrangements of either instrumental or orchestral music. I have heard several examples over the years, several of them by the late Clytus Gottwald, and I am afraid I have never found these satisfactory; that even applies to composers’ arrangements of their own music, of which Samuel Barber’s Agnus Dei is the prime example. One of several reasons why I think these arrangements don’t work is that often music which lies comfortably for instruments is too demanding for voices; here, even the excellent professional sopranos of the ORA Singers were sometimes taken almost uncomfortably up to the top of their compass by Murray’s arrangement. His version worked better than a curious hybrid for strings and voices which I heard a little while ago. However, VW knew what he was doing: let’s just leave his masterpiece to strings.

The ORA Singers at the Three Choirs Festival 2023 © James O’Driscoll

The second half began, like the first, with distant singing. In this case five members of the ORA Singers gave a spirited rendition of Byrd’s Rorate caeli from near the back of the cathedral nave. Most of us had our backs to the singers and, once again, hearing music sung by invisible voices added a welcome dimension to Byrd’s masterly music. The full ensemble, back on stage, then gave us James MacMillan’s Lux aeterna. This is one of MacMillan’s Strathclyde Motets, pieces very deliberately intended for good-quality church choirs to sing as Communion anthems. Were it not for the gently dissonant harmonies, this fine SATB motet could easily be taken for a piece of Renaissance polyphony. I really enjoyed Suzi Digby’s spacious conception of the music and the succession of ‘Amens’ at the end was exquisitely delivered.

After the chaste purity of a short piece by Hildegard of Bingen, sung by five sopranos, we heard Alleluia, I heard a voice by Janet Wheeler (b.1957). I don’t think this is an ORA Singers commission. Wheeler here sets words from the Book of Revelation. At first, the music is gently luminous, but before long the setting becomes joyful and strongly rhythmic. The end of the piece reverts to the mood and material of the opening. I liked this piece a lot. I am not sure I have heard music by Janet Wheeler before but on this evidence I am keen to experience more of her choral output.

Roderick Williams’ Byrd-inspired Ave verum corpus Re-imagined is another of the early ORA Singers commissions; like the Panufnik piece, it was included on the aforementioned ‘Upheld by Stillness’ album. I have heard it a good few times since – a pleasing number of other choirs have taken it up – but never live. The ORA Singers were divided into three groups: the largest group was placed in the middle of the platform while two smaller, equal-sized groups stood to left and right. This placing enabled me to appreciate Williams’ skilful multi-part writing to a greater extent than previously. The tonality of the writing is uncertain, sometimes venturing into atonality, but the listener can easily absorb that uncertainty because the music is so fluently and intriguingly written. The piece is a very fine one, very respectful of Byrd, yet very much of our time. It was a delight to experience it live and so expertly sung.

The concert ended in a mirror image of the opening. As some of the male voices sang the plainchant Spem in alium, the remainder of the choir exited the stage and made their way back to the north transept. From here they sang Vaughan Williams’ Rest. This is quite an early work – it was first performed in 1902 – in which VW sets lines by Christina Rossetti. Like the Byrd piece with which the programme began, this was another example of distance lending enchantment. It is a very touching piece; as I listened, I was put in mind of Parry’s masterly Songs of Farewell. The ORA Singers’ performance was supremely sensitive and it was a fitting end to a very fine concert.

John Quinn

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