{"id":12593,"date":"2022-11-25T08:28:06","date_gmt":"2022-11-25T08:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/?p=12593"},"modified":"2022-11-25T08:33:56","modified_gmt":"2022-11-25T08:33:56","slug":"portsmothe-choral-union-the-rennaisance-choir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/2022\/11\/25\/portsmothe-choral-union-the-rennaisance-choir\/","title":{"rendered":"PORTSMOUTH CHORAL UNION & THE RENNAISANCE CHOIR"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Performing Vespers, October 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recording of the Rachmaninov Vespers <\/em>by Alexander Sveshnikov and the State Academic Russian Choir, from 1965, is described as \u2018bone-chilling\u2019 by one reviewer. It isn\u2019t taken from the shelves to be played as much as it might, some Mozart sonatas or Bach usually providing not quite such intense company. As with Schoenberg\u2019s Gurrelieder, <\/em>there are safer options and, anyway, what chance does a CD have against the real, visceral experience of hearing it live?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having once been all the way to Handel\u2019s house in Mayfair to hear Biber\u2019s Passacaglia <\/em>in the flesh because I wasn\u2019t sure when I\u2019d get any other chance, even the combined forces of the Portsmoth Choral Union and the Renaissance Choir giving this had long been a top priority in the diary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The reputation of Rachmaninov (left)<\/em><\/strong> would be safe enough in posterity for his piano music but the Vespers <\/em>go into entirely another dimension. These excellent but local choirs are not afraid of much but it was nevertheless brave of them  to take this music on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

One afternoon in the 1990\u2019s the Vespers <\/em>came on the radio and I looked out at dark clouds scudding across a November sky, which fitted very well the evocation of lost souls in the vast wilderness of Russia and the universe beyond. The mundanity of the work I was ostensibly being paid to do lost any meaning it was meant to have. So, how were the joint forces of Porstmouth Choral Union and the Renaissance Choir going to match this challenge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the Call to Prayer <\/em>and Bless the Lord, O my soul <\/em>it was clearly going to be \u2018with great panache\u2019. Music can cause an authentic physical reaction, the genuine tingle and thrill that feels like one\u2019s hair is standing on end, whether it actually is or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It doesn\u2019t happen to me very often, but it immediately did here, with special reference to the other-worldly solo by Melissa Wingfield.. For me there is a powerful disjunction between the abandoned, abject emotion in the music and the text which is confident in its devotions. One couldn\u2019t help but draw parallels between continuing news reports from east of here, if not anywhere closer, and any available solace that there is to be had, among which art and music as profound as this is a significant part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Evening Hymn of Light <\/em>there was some respite and the glorious tenor of Jon English soared above the slow pulse of the sopranos in the Song of Simeon <\/em>before the full force of the choir briefly created a cathedral of sound. There were times to be reminded of Spem in Alium, <\/em>plainchant, those albums of Le Mystere de Voix Bulgares <\/em>or James MacMillan but perhaps this is music in a category of its own. The choir provided ebb and flow like the ocean of sound in the Tallis, but the surges of power like that at, i blagosloven Plod chreva Tvoyego <\/em>from the tenors were crashing waves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Samsung<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

David Green, (left) who does so much good work in profiling music in Portsmouth through a network of print and electronic media outlets completed his report with reference to one or two individuals who had made significant contributions to what sounds like a wonderful evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otche Nash, <\/em>the Lord\u2019s Prayer, by Anton Arensky was inserted as an acknowledgement of Rachmaninov\u2019s teacher but also of the fact that this music is often given with other appropriate items in more extended services. It hadn\u2019t occurred to me before that singers are in a way athletes and benefit from Jon providing a tenor solo before the rhythmic Glory to God in the highest, <\/em>the chill wind that still seemed to sound through the road to salvation and the rousing, celebratory energy of the Hymn to the Virgin.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gladly, at the conclusion Peter Gambie let it hang in the air for some moments rather than rush to the uproar of a Beethoven or Dudamel finish. I don\u2019t think anybody was interested in the flamboyant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wow. Apart from absolutely everybody who was involved in this thankfully well-attended performance, special credit is due to David Gostick who rehearsed his PCU powerhouse contingent as an essential contribution to Peter Gambie\u2019s direction whose privilege, as he said, that was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The recording of the Rachmaninov\u00a0Vespers\u00a0by Alexander Sveshnikov and the State Academic Russian Choir, from 1965, is described as \u2018bone-chilling\u2019 by one reviewer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12593"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12601,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12593\/revisions\/12601"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}