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Phillip T Young Recital Hall
April 1, 2011
"I love to hear a choir. I love the humanity to see the faces of real people devoting themselves to a piece of music. I like the teamwork. It makes me feel optimistic about the human race when I see them cooperating like that."
Certainly, in an age where there seem to be many reasons for despairing of the human race, we should join Sir Paul McCartney in celebrating anything which makes us feel the opposite.
Friday's latest programme from the UVic Chamber Singers was apparently dedicated to "exploring music related to water, time and distance" and who can argue that the weather refused to cooperate? I have rarely seen so many umbrellas in the passage leading to the Phillip T Young.
This was the first time that I had heard the singers under their new(ish) conductor Brian Wismath and I delighted to report that all of the qualities we traditionally associate with this group - immaculate intonation, beautiful tone and first-class diction - were present and correct.
As I had remembered to take my notebook but, as I discovered as the lights were dimming, omitted to take either pencil or pen, the remarks which follow will, perforce, be somewhat light on detail.
The opening pair of Shaker Songs, "Lay Me Low" and "Peace", sensitively set by Kevin Siegfried, were quite lovely, performed in an appropriately simple style.
Of Matthew Harris's three Shakespeare Songs, I particularly enjoyed the spirited "Hark, Hark! the Lark".
Sounding not one whit out of place in this distinguished company was Thomas Callow's (My beautiful flower) (I'm not quite sure of the significance of those parentheses). Callow is a member of the choir and clearly knows how to write for voices; this was an impressive achievement.
The major work on the programme was Canticus Calamitatis Maritimae by Jaakko Mäntyjärvi, a depiction of the terrible events of September 29, 1994 when 852 people died in the loss of the Ms. Estonia, the worst peacetime maritime disaster in the history of the Baltic Sea.
Drawing its text from divine liturgy, Psalm 107 and Finnish radio news broadcasts translated into Latin (and one cannot help but wonder just how many Finnish-to-Latin translators there are in the world), the music is both disquieting (particularly in its outer passages, wherein the choir whisper rather than sing) and moving.
The work is also, when performed at this level, quite engrossing.
In addition to the choral music, there are also two notable solo roles for soprano (Janet Whitney-Brown) and "precentor" (Dan Cantiller), both excellently sung.
Finally, a short piece by Maurice Duruflé, "Ubi Caritas". As with much of his music, Gregorian chant provides the thematic basis and the solo voice of a "cantor" (the first-rate Nicholas Allen) opens the work with the unadorned original. I think that this performance, together with the all-Duruflé concert last summer, may be turning me into something of a concert.
Brian Wismath conducting never distracted one's attention from the music itself and it is clear that the Chamber Singers are in safe hands.
This programme is repeated tonight (Sunday, April 3) at 8. Recommended to anyone with a taste for top flight choral singing.
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