Waltham
Singers at King Edward VI School Chelmsford
18.03.17
Fauré's
wondrous Requiem was the climax of this concert of music for the
Lenten Period. Despite the secular surroundings, this was one of the
most enthralling
performances I've heard of
this familiar work,
with superb solos from baritone Adam Maxey and treble Angus Benton,
and beautiful choral singing – the O Domine in the Offertory, the
sensitively shaped Requiem Aeternam in the Agnus Dei and the
diminuendo at the end of In Paradisum. In a performance close to what
the composer himself might have known, the Singers were accompanied
by Ensemble OrQuesta – two horns, harp
and strings, with an eloquent solo violin for the Sanctus.
Laurence
Lyndon-Jones at the organ accompanied the works in the first part,
which included Allegri's Miserere, in a new version by Harry
Christophers which aims to trace the evolution of the work from its
simple origins to the form
we know today. Some spectacular ornamentation from Choir II, in the
furthest reaches of the balcony. Two Essex composers were featured:
William Byrd with a setting of the Ash Wednesday motet Emendemus in
Melius, and Alan Bullard with a new piece, the Penitential Psalms,
based around the Ubi Caritas for Maundy Thursday. Impressively sung
under the exacting direction of Andrew Fardell: dramatic lower voices
for De Profundis, a telling repetition for “in generationem” and
a sensitively sustained Amen at the close.
This
work
was commissioned by the Waltham Singers, using a bequest from my
predecessor on the Chelmsford Weekly News, Peter Andrews. It will be
heard again later this month in Belgium, as part of the choir's tour
of Bruges and beyond.
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