Saturday 8th June 2013 at 7.30 in St James the Greater Church, Leicester, with Rowena Calvert, ‘cello, directed by Richard Laing.
This varied and fine example of programme building was played to a smaller than usual audience. Those who stayed away because of ‘modern’ composers (Arensky, Bach and Tchaikovsky modern?) missed a treat! There were eight items. In these demanding days it is de rigueur for a good choir not only to sing in Latin, French and German, but, as in this concert, Church Slavonic.
From the beginning, Rowena Calvert created an atmosphere of serenity and gravitas with Bach: the Prelude of the unaccompanied D minor ‘cello suite. The choir responded with Arensky’s Lord’s Prayer, sung (in Russian or Church Slavonic) with conviction and typical Russian sonority. Then choir and ‘cello were joined in a remarkably powerful and expressive ‘modern’ work (1987) by Norwegian Knut Nystedt – a setting of the Stabat Mater, a 13th century devotional poem describing the emotions of Jesus’ mother Mary at his crucifixion. Nystedt’s setting caught the tone to such an extent that, at the end, I felt I had been inwardly weeping. The cello commented in brief and sometimes extensive ritornelli between some verses, and accompanied powerfully the interestingly written choral part. Richard Laing said it was a ‘cello concerto with choir accompaniment’: is it really? It seemed to me to be fine choral writing with a fascinatingly virtuosic and integrated ‘cello line. At the end of this piece the mood changed from the painful and sad through the meditative and excited, to inward joy.
As if this were not enough, the choir sang Tschaikovsky’s Hymn to the Virgin, again in the original language: a passionate outpouring of vibrantly surging choral sound alternating with gently atmospheric devotional music.
It is my conviction that music conveys things which no other art form can. During the next piece, a setting of O Magnum Mysterium by the young Norwegian composer (b. 1978), Ola Gjeilo, the sound of the warm-toned choir, accompanied by the soaring ‘cello, gave me a completely new insight into the familiar thought of the Christ child as sacrament. The interval followed. Chatter was out of the question. I sought stillness. Music needs silence.
Arvo Pärt’s Fratres began with vigorous ‘cello arpeggios, and continued with a piano accompaniment which produced chords of choral quality, later subsumed into eerie sounds of miraculous harmonics on the ‘cello. Then more Bach in a ‘cello Gigue. Then the gloriously simple Cherubic Hymn by Glinka with a big Russian sound. Finally John Tavener rounded off the evening with Svyati – a mesmeric choral prayer on a drone bass, with the choir at the front and the ‘cello at the back of St James’s providing their own evocations of celestial sounds.
“This was an evening when I was reminded what the purpose of music really is.”
David H Clark, 9.6.13