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First Metropolitan United Church
November 25, 2007
After his return from his second trip to London, Joseph Haydn composed no more symphonies. He did, however, write a series of setting of the Mass, which are so large in scope and so tautly constructed that they are frequently referred to as "symphonic masses".
The finest of these is the Missa in angustiis ("Mass in time of stress" - Haydn's own title), otherwise known as the "Nelson" Mass.
Saturday evening's concert opened (most unusually) with the Mass, in a dramatic and closely argued performance under VCO Music Director Yariv Aloni.
The singing of the Prima Choir was excellent: confident and fresh: I can still recall singing this music myself, at the age of fifteen or thereabouts and the wonderful feeling of discovery it engendered. You could hear the excitement in the young voices.
The four vocal soloists - all, I'm told, alumni of either Prima of the UVic Chamber Singers, or both - were a finely-matched quartet, whose voices blended beautifully and who coped very well with their individual solo roles.
Of course, Haydn rarely uses all four soloists together and the lion's share of the solo singing goes to the soprano. And a less-than-adequate soprano can quite easily torpedo an entire performance.
Corrine Borgford occasionally lacked control of her instrument - some of the more florid passages threatened to get away from her - but when it counted, such as at the climactic return of the opening music in the "Kyrie", her voice not only cut through the orchestra and chorus, it soared above them, as it should.
The expanded Victoria Chamber Orchestra accompanied superbly. It must be admitted that most of the music interest is in the vocal lines, but poor playing will still undermine the music. There was no such danger on this occasion, although it did sound a little odd at times to hear phrases one is used to hear from the organ being played by, or example, an oboe. Although I'd rather have heard the original instrumentation (strings, trumpets. timpani and organ) I can readily understand the desire not to have the wind players sitting around idly all evening waiting for the final work.
All in all, though, this was an exciting and engaging performance of one of my favourite pieces of music. I would not have missed it.
The Haydn having represented "War", after the interval we had the "Peace".
The Viva Chorale - all eight of them, with a combined age less than double mine - sang Melchior Franck's "Da Pacem Domine" under their Director Connie More. They sang a capella and produced a lovely sound. Quite remarkable.
The members of the chorale then joined the female voices of Prima for Arne Mellnänas's Aglepta, another dramatic a capella piece full of non-musical effects like yells, shrieks and the like.
Bruce More conducted a most effective performance.
Estonian composer Veljo Tormis's Curse Upon Iron was banned by the Soviet government which, in itself, is almost a recommendation.
Bruce More directed the UVic Chamber Singers in a work which is clearly far from easy to sing; the performance was full of rhythmic verve, boundless energy and, of course, accuracy. I was occasionally put in mind of Stravinsky (specifically, Les Noces) by the most obsessively rhythmic portions. There were fine, albeit brief, solo contributes from Jeremy Notheisz, Cairan Ryan, Andrew Scamber and Andrew Persoon (on a hand-held drum).
The final work of the evening was Srul Irving Glick's The Hour Has Come and, I must say, my impression of the composer was definitely improved by both the music and the performance.
The warm string passage which opened the work presaged well for the performance as a whole, which combined some fine singing - oddly I was reminded of Vaughan Williams and Parry - with impressively lush playing, and built to a most impressive final climax.
Although it was a sense of loyalty which kept me in attendance after the Haydn, I did not regret a single second.
A marvellous evening.
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