Herbert Howells and selection from King Richard III – William Walton
Conductor: Richard Laing
Violin and Viola: Shulah Oliver
With Bach Camerata
Leicester Bach Choir wishes to thank the Herbert Howells Trust for their generous financial support of our March concert, when the choir performed An English Mass by Herbert Howells.
Congratulations are due to the Leicester Bach Choir and their conductor Richard Laing for a superb and quintessentially English concert. It was a brave decision to put on a concert consisting of relatively obscure works: although Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending has gained fame through Classic FM, his haunting and beautiful Flos Campi is much less well known, as are the topical Music from Richard III by Walton and the showpiece of the evening, Howells’ An English Mass. Those who went to concerts of more familiar music on the same night missed a treat here, as the audience at St James the Greater can testify.
Although this is billed as a Bach Choir concert, first and foremost tribute must be paid to the Bach Camerata, whose beautifully sustained and sensitive playing both opened and underpinned the whole concert. The mood of innocence and yet wistfulness conjured up especially during the Walton was breathtaking. But the prize for pure magic has to go to the violin soloist Shulah Oliver, whose gorgeous depiction of the lark ascending kept the audience silent at the end for a good twenty seconds of delight as we all imagined the bird spiralling away.
Shulah was no less outstanding as the viola soloist in Flos Campi, producing a tender and gentle solo after the climax of the piece, which was reminiscent of another Vaughan Williams’ masterpiece, The Oxford Elegy (perhaps another year, Bach Choir…?). The choir made a major contribution to the atmosphere conjured up: in all this wash of emotional intensity it would be easy for it not to sound as though the piece knew where it was going, but the accuracy of the choral singing, with its excellent phrasing and attention to dynamics, carried the momentum forward and provided a sensitive backing to the solo viola with sustained quiet singing which was hugely effective.
All this set the scene beautifully for the dark and brooding Kyrie that opens Howells’ An English Mass. There was so much that was good that it is hard to pick out particulars, but I was struck by the exciting Credo, the excellent bass solo by Phil Hawkins in the Sursum Corda, the sense of awe conjured up by the Sanctus and the sublime Benedictus. There was a stunning ending to the Agnus Dei and a very confident and atmospheric Gloria. The only thing that marred the performance was the strident note struck by a siren outside the church, which spoilt a highly effective solo by tenor Sam Wood at the very end. We were left wanting more, an encore sans ambulance, but we will have to wait. One thing is certain – the Leicester Bach Choir and its conductor Richard Laing know how to give a great concert.
Susan Paterson