Review Details
MUSIC IN THE UNIVERSITY - CAROLS FOR ALL!
Alan Cooper
14 December 2008
St. ANDREW’S EPISCOPAL CATHEDRAL, KING STREET, ABERDEEN
Despite the fact that there were two performances of the ever popular Carols for All on Sunday, people still had to be turned away from the evening performance if they did not have tickets because the Cathedral was full. In a way that is unfortunate, but it gives the lie to those who think that only pop concerts get full houses these days. In fact, as one of the regular attendees at University music concerts, my impression over the last couple of years is that audiences have been expanding steadily.
The combination of Choral Society and Concert Band has always been a winner, and this year the added bonus of the fine St. Andrew’s Cathedral organ played by George Chittenden added to the spectacular impression given by this concert of Christmas Music on the Grand Scale. The full house congregation itself gave the audience participation carols a special impression of grandeur. Long gone are the days when Roger Williams had to work hard to get the audience to sing. The tradition has now become so settled that enthusiastic singing is just there for him on tap whenever he wants it. All he needs to do is ask. Such are the fruits of his years of labour.
The University of Aberdeen Concert Band had already made a big impression at the Gala Concert in November. Eric Kidd had already lifted them up quite considerably but now their new conductor Bob Owen has smashed the glass ceiling and sent them rocketing skywards. Curnow’s Festive Fanfare based on the tune of the carol Joy to the World and Philip Spark’s Carol of the Shepherds were deliciously rich Christmas fare and in the second half of the concert, Philip Spark’s Veni Immanuel was full of wonderfully subtle dramatic and atmospheric touches. Here, the band had the kind of musical transparency that you normally get only with a symphony orchestra and then Robert Smith’s Celtic Carol delivered everything that Bob Owen had promised when in his introduction he mentioned Riverdance.
William J. Kirkpatrick’s setting of Away in a Manger is one of those pieces that is so well known that it is almost never performed as a concert piece any more. It is assumed that everybody does it, and as a result nobody does. It was one of the special highlights of the Choral Society’s performance bringing forth the most beautifully pure transparent sound from the sopranos, later backed by gorgeously warm hummed harmonies from the rest of the chorus. This was followed by The Shepherd’s Farewell by Hector Berlioz from The Childhood of Christ. Roger Williams used the woodwind section of the band for the orchestral introductions to the verses which were accompanied with splendid subtlety by George Chittenden. Christmas music just does not get better than this.
The Choral Society conducted by Roger Williams began their contribution to the concert with two early carols which are still among the finest ever; Es ist ein Ros’entsprungen by Michael Praetorius and A child is born in Bethlehem by Samuel Scheidt. Moving to the twentieth century, Britten’s A new year is come and A babe is born by William Matthias are surely two works of equal quality from our own era. The second of these featured a nice incisive performance from George Chittenden.
Myn lyking by Sir Richard Runciman Terry director of music at Westminster Cathedral and the man who pioneered the revival of Tudor English Church music turned out to be a little gem and it was followed by a carol that was familiar to everyone, Deck the Hall (apparently a Welsh Carol, though I always thought it was American – perhaps because so many Hollywood composers have latched onto it).
To conclude the concert, after we had all tried to raise the roof with Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, the Choral Society gave us just a snatch of We wish you a merry Christmas. It was very tastefully done especially for a Cathedral performance but I still had a hankering to hear something about Figgy Pudding. I suppose I will just have to sing it myself!