 |
| East Devon Choral Society 40th Anniversary Concert (Photo from video by Mike Brett) |
East Devon Choral Society’s 40th Anniversary Concert
East Devon Choral Society celebrated its 40th
anniversary by presenting a gala performance of music by Giuseppe Verdi last
Saturday evening at Tiverton High School Sports Hall.
The concert began with the orchestra
playing the overture from Verdi’s ‘The Force of Destiny’ and finished with
‘Brindisi Chorus’ – (The Drinking Song) – from ‘La Traviata’, a chance for the
soloists to let their hair down and to send us all home in a suitably
celebratory mood.
Central to the programme was Verdi’s
monumental Requiem, a piece that is written for a double choir, full orchestra
and four soloists. This is an ambitious piece for any music group to perform.
As you would expect from the composer responsible for many of the world’s most
famous operas, it is a Requiem full of drama, placing enormous demands on
soloists, choir, orchestra and the conductor who must lead and inspire the
multitude of performers under his baton.
Andrew Daldorph has been directing the
Choral Society for the past 10 years and Saturday’s performance demonstrated
the strength of the choir under his direction. Of course Andrew inherited a
choir that was well accustomed to tackling major works in the choral
repertoire. Under Dr John Byrt, the choir’s director for the previous 28 years,
there had been performances of Faure’s Requiem,
Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Handel’s Messiah as well as John’s own compositions.
There are very few things I find more
affecting than a really strong choir singing with quiet passion. Verdi’s
requiem is full of fireworks, but it was the restrained passages, when the
conductor held in check the vast forces at his disposal, that sent shivers down
my spine.
The soloists were Claire Surman - Soprano,
Alison Kettlewell - Mezzo-Soprano, Samuel Evans - Bass and Edward Hughes -
Tenor. Edward Hughes replaced Iain Milne who was prevented from appearing by
illness, but these are consummate professionals and this alteration made no
difference to the strength of their performance. All four enjoy international
success on opera and concert stages. For Claire Surman, this was a return home.
Claire grew up in Tiverton and attended Tiverton School and East Devon College
before moving on via a First Class Honours degree at Keel University to the
Royal College of Music.
Verdi is a composer who is a great master
of musical colour and his full palette is displayed in the Requiem. With its
quiet opening the Requiem seems to emerge from darkness into light, as if the
dead for whom it is written step from the darkness of the grave into the light
of the Last Judgement. The terrifying Dies
irea – Day of wrath – with its
four thunderous opening chords is followed by the tragic Lacrymosa dies illa – Day of
weeping. The beautiful cello opening of the Offertorio ushers in a quartet whose soaring harmonies seem to
offer comfort and hope and the possibility for resolution, but the soprano’s
final, quiet almost desperate plea of Libera
me –Deliver me, that concludes the Requiem, leaves us doubting the
possibility of salvation and the dying phrase plunges back into the darkness
and silence from which the Requiem emerged.
This was a masterful performance, the four
solo voices at times flying above, at times blending with the ever shifting
moods of the chorus and orchestra. Tiverton is not a big town and yet here was
a performance of ambition and stature that many cities would be proud to own.
The performance was enhanced by its staging
and by the welcoming atmosphere created by local students and volunteer ushers.
For those of us who know the Sports Hall, the transformation was remarkable. A
sweeping, white curtain, the full height of the building, dramatically lit from
below, surrounded the choir and orchestra. Lighting towers had been installed
and raised platforms for the spot-lit soloists and conductor. As we arrived,
each member of the audience was greeted at the door by smiling ‘Ambassadors’
from the High School and despite the very large numbers, the volunteer bar
staff served drinks to all who wanted them during the interval.
The East Devon Choral Society first met 40
years ago at East Devon College following an advertisement placed in the
Gazette by the then Principal, Clifford Dixon. This important relationship
between the cultural and educational life of our community continues today as
the mounting of this performance through a collaboration with Tiverton High School
Let us all wish the East Devon Choral
Society another 40 wonderful years.
Chris Speyer
No comments:
Post a Comment