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21 March
Mini-reports from Easter at King's : the annual festival, in concert and in choral services, of Passiontide music and texts for Holy Week
Bach's St John Passion ~ The Academy of Ancient Music, conducted by Stephen Cleobury ~ Monday 21 and Tuesday 22 March at 7.30 p.m.
A battle of wills - and world-views - between a baritone (Roderick Williams) and a bass-baritone (Neal Davies)
Real electricity in interchanges of @Sviceridor (Pilate) and Neal Davies (Christus) with @JamesTenorGilch (Evangelist) at @ConcertsatKings— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) March 22, 2016
Some instrumental assets among The Academy's regulars
Especially with organ (Alastair Ross), also a strong and positive mainstay, a knock-out in the closing recitative from @JamesTenorGilch !— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) March 22, 2016
The vocal cast for the Choir's recording of the performances
Both nights with a recording-team from @ChoirOfKingsCam's label - quite a cast with also @iestyn_davies @Sviceridor Sophie Bevan @ed_lyon...— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) March 23, 2016
Catching up properly with Bojan Čičić (after seeking a solution to temperature-sensitive period instruments and the huge South doors of King's College Chapel on Monday)
Good to chat to @BojanCicic again (pictured at @WestRoadCH), excellently leading @AAMorchestra at @ConcertsatKings ! pic.twitter.com/OCSssGjRkg— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) March 22, 2016
Services of Sung Compline (one of the daily Offices, before it was merged with that of Evensong) ~ The National Youth Choir of Great Britain, directed by Ben Parry ~ Tuesday 22 March (and also Wednesday 23 and Thursday 24 March) at 10.00 p.m.
Compline at @Kings_College was, as usual, a thoughtful time, with Chaplain Andrew Hammond imagining the detail of Bethany in John 12 : 1-10.— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) March 23, 2016
Striking individual voices heard amongst @nycgb, as well as a good sense of choral ensemble and singing liturgically under @benparrymusic !— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) March 23, 2016
Britten Sinfonia (@BrittenSinfonia) and Britten Sinfonia Voices, conducted by Eamonn Dougan (@ejdougan), in a programme of Byrd, Bach, Shostakovich (arr. Barshai) and James MacMillan (@jamesmacm), plus a short tribute to Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, on Wednesday 23 March at 7.30 p.m.
Both set the scene for @BrittenSinfonia to give us Rudolf Barshai's inspired transmutation of Shostakovich SQ8 into a Chamber Symphony in Cm— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) March 24, 2016
Instead of Tweets, some comments on the Sinfonia with Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 110, arranged as a Chamber Symphony, Op. 110a
* A sympathetic transcription by Rudolf Barshai, which makes the most of the orchestra’s deep, full sound
* As a Chamber Symphony (with the leader sometimes in an obbligato role ?), the work has a different character
* Fire in its belly (Allegro molto) - fast and insistent
* On an emotional level, made unacceptable, by being acceptable with full strings ?
* Amidst passion, hollowness afterwards (Allegretto), with aetherial solo violin and muted violas
* We may never know how much of this quartet was an elegy for DSCH, Dresden, or both, but the repeated three-note pattern (in the first of two movements marked Largo (Largo (I)) here feels militaristic (with inescapable threat when we can hear the sound of the drone ?)
* The solo role for the leader re-emerges at the end (Largo (II))
With feeling, @SJCleobury described this personable man's contributions to music as composer, colleague and supporter of @ChoirOfKingsCam...— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) March 25, 2016
In tribute to the memory of ‘Max’ (who died on 14 March 2016), James MacMillan’s Seven Last Words was seamlessly preceded by his ‘Lullabye for Lucy’ (1981)
In Part IV, @jamesmacm reminds of Bartók, with a resonance in bass strings and voices, which widens out and, in an arc, comes back again.— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) March 26, 2016
After echoing cries (as if of affirmation of ‘Father’ ?), @jamesmacm here, as elsewhere into plainsong melody, has a coalescence into lament— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) March 26, 2016
Some other responses to the MacMillan
Performance of @jamesmacm Seven Last Words by @BrittenSinfonia tonight reminded me it is a masterpiece - which is not a word I use lightly.— Andrew Davison (@AP_Davison) March 23, 2016
Left speechless last night @ConcertsatKings by perf of @jamesmacm Seven Last Words by @BrittenSinfonia & Chorus. Devastating.— Donald Macleod (@DonaldMacleod01) March 24, 2016
The BBC Concert Orchestra (@BBCCO) and BBC Singers (@BBCSingers), conducted in Palestrina, Schubert and Haydn by Stephen Cleobury (@SJCleobury) ~ 24 March (Good Friday) at 7.30 p.m.
Despite using a split choir, does Palestrina broadly seem to set the text straight through, and be more about our understanding than drama ?— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) March 25, 2016
Next, Schubert, the Symphony No. 4 in C Minor, D. 417 (where the composer’s age should be immaterial)
Palestrina seems to be concerned with the opposite of what Schubert is doing, in his accomplished and earnest symphonic writing ->— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) March 27, 2016
As it progressed, the Menuetto made greater impact, and the closing Allegro had the quality of very short bow-movements, becoming triumphant— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) March 27, 2016
One asked if Schubert's ending would work, till he reduced to small forces with flute, and then built, using bassoon, to a bigger structure.— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) March 27, 2016
In a version for choir + SATB of Haydn's Seven Last Words of our Saviour on the Cross, close following of the text made it not seem operatic— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) March 25, 2016
Stephen Cleobury, conducting The Choir of King’s College Chapel and The Hanover Band, in Handel’s Brockes Passion (1715-1716) ~ 26 March (Holy Saturday) at 7.30 p.m.
At @ConcertsatKings at Easter, not only doubling Pergolesi's Stabat Mater (from @SaffronHallSW) with Palestrina's, but two Passion settings— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) March 27, 2016
At @ConcertsatKings at Easter, after hearing Bach's St John, we realized both Handel's patent influence, but also much that's also Handelian— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) March 30, 2016
It is Bach's copy that allows us to hear Handel's work now : initially, there are patent similarities, but then really many more differences— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) March 27, 2016
Similarities (which may modify what we think of as typically of Bach) :
* Effects and certain moods
* Figurations brought out, e.g. by the oboe, within themes
* The onward impulse of a harpsichord cadence into recitative, or a brief instrumental phrase that leads to an aria
* Eilt, ihr angefochtnen Seelen – the words and the interjections are there from Handel
Dissimilarities (amongst many such places) :
* Short choral interjections (the first being two lines, beginning Wir alle wollen eh’ erblassen)
* Number and use of soloists (trios and quartets), even if Bach may have wished to do so (and Handel was led by his text)
* In Bach’s work, the calls for crucifixion are more ferocious (use of the turba Chorus in the St John)
* Differently paced, especially in the concluding numbers
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Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)
