Review Details
MUSIC IN THE UNIVERSITY Bmus FRESHERS WEEK CHORUS CARL ORFF : CARMINA BURANA
Alan Cooper
25 September 2009
Zeste
The Freshers’ Week Concert designed to make newcomers to University Music feel at home is becoming a well established tradition for Aberdeen University. Post concert catering is becoming more enticing every year so after the performance not many of those in the chorus or in the audience seemed to be in a hurry to leave the building. This is as it should be. In my day, the Music Department always had a family atmosphere surrounding it (occasionally it has to be said a fractious one) and although today the family has grown massively in size, it still exudes a welcoming atmosphere perfectly embodied by this special start of term event. This year the head of department Professor Pete Stollery himself joined the bass section of the choir which consisted of new, along with more senior students.
The first such concert two years ago presented a programme of music by Gilbert and Sullivan then last year we enjoyed a selection from Broadway musicals. This year Paul Mealor conducted six of the highlights from Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, (seven if you include the reprise of O Fortuna which both opens and concludes the piece). Of course we missed the orchestra, especially Orff’s magnificent scoring for percussion but Ian Milne did a sparkling job of bringing to life the reduction for solo piano.
The impromptu chorus had only three rehearsals yet their performance brimmed with confidence and the singing was rich and often stunningly powerful with precise rhythmic responses and careful attention to diction from the entire chorus. The infectious enthusiasm of youth ran through all the singing lighting up Orff’s already colourful choral scoring.
We enjoyed the bonus of solo performances by two of the department’s more advanced students. Baritone Andrew McNeill brought out the fine resonance of Omnia Sol Tempera while one of the work’s most beautiful highlights, In Trutina benefited from the attractive singing of soprano Heather Ireson.
New students were given an idea of the capabilities of their more advanced colleagues while they themselves had an opportunity of finding out whether they could also measure up. Perhaps the well known song from The King and I although it was not performed this year sums up the whole impetus behind these splendid freshers’ concerts. It is of course Getting to Know You. The happy buzz coming from Zeste as I left suggested that friendships were being made or resumed while another successful season of learning and making music was getting under way.