I don’t often go out in the evenings at the moment, as I’m still getting far too tired. But there was a concert on at Malvern Theatres this evening that I particularly wanted to see, so I made a big effort. In fact, the recent snow made it a bigger effort than I had anticipated – the roads are fine, and my drive isn’t too bad (I’ve put lots of salt down, and there is only a light sprinkling of snow). But it has been so cold that the car doors froze solid overnight and I didn’t have the strength to open them! And the de-icer was inside the car so a fat lot of use that was! I worked from home this morning, and by this afternoon it had warmed up sufficiently that with the help of a jug of hot water I was able to force my way into the car. But it had frozen shut again by the time I needed to go out to the theatre this evening, and needed more hot water to unstick the door seals.
The concert was by the Armonico Consort, and featured a range of 16th century 36-part and 40-part motets, including Tallis’s Spem in Alium and Striggio’s Ecce Beatam Lucem. This sort of choral music was much more Christopher’s thing than mine. He was much more musical than me, used to sing in several choirs, and had no trouble following the different threads in multi-part canons and motets. It all went over my head rather, as I simply do not have the musical background to appreciate the works in the way that he could. So when I got an email from Malvern Theatres several weeks ago offering me a full-price seat for only £10, I decided it was an opportunity to see what all the fuss was about.
Wow. Just …… Wow.
It was absolutely superb. The choir sang the 40-part pieces in the round. So it was possible to see and hear the different parts, and follow the musical themes as they moved around the room, which I found extremely interesting.The conductor was really breaking into a sweat as he tried to weave together all 40 threads, half of which were behind him, whilst craning his neck every now and then to follow the score. The music was beautiful, and in places really made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Christopher would have absolutely loved it.
{ 2 } Comments
So glad you enjoyed the concert – wish we’d been able to hear it. ‘Spem in Alium’ is amazing – I heard it in the round in Wells Cathedral years ago, with the Bach Choir, and the way the music flew across from one place to another was brilliant. It wouldn’t have a fraction of the impact if the choirs were arranged conventually. Although we’ve both sung in big choirs, we’ve never done that work, but would have loved to One of our favourites is Vaughn-Williams ‘Sea Symphony’ – recommended listening if you get the chance. I sang Beethoven’s ‘Choral Symphony’ (No 9) years ago with the Bournemouth Symphony Chorus in Berne – 5 rehearsals and 2 performances in 5 days. Very hard on the voice – extremely high for all parts, and 13 consecutive bars on top A is a real strain for most sopranos!!
We haven’t had any snow over here – nor even when we were in Shrewsbury the other day, Cold, but only down to -4 (except for one night when it went down to -7). Looks as if we’ve missed it this year.
Peter’s (Hart) 70th party went very well – we’re not really party people, but his choir did a great job for him, and it was great fun – had a trad jazz band as well.
All good wishes – keep up the good work.
It is quite magical to hear it sung like that, isn’t it. I’m so glad you enjoyed it.