Carols at Goudhurst
11th December 2005
No review available
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Brahms Requiem
Assembly Hall, Tunbridge Wells, 20th November 2005.
In their November concert, the Royal Tunbridge Wells Choral Society presented an all Brahms programme. This was built around Brahms´ masterful German Requiem, but the audience was delicately warmed up with his more understated Variations on the St Anthony Chorale. The programme was carefully directed by Richard Jenkinson, who drew some lovely sounds from the accomplished Bernardi Chamber Ensemble. The woodwind players especially were on top form in the opening, with some fine articulation and mellow sound. Brahms´ orchestration is nothing if not subtle, and Jenkinson, sometimes with a baton and sometimes without, navigated its waters with real precision. The tender 7th variation, so difficult to bring off successfully with its siciliano-esque dotted rhythms, was handled with the care and precision that characterised the whole performance. As with the opening moments of the Requiem, the orchestra responded well to his direction and the colours they produced together were rich and varied ones. “The choral passages... were performed with terrific energy and great conviction”
Even when split by an interval, the Requiem is always an enormous task, with its long choral passages and giant fugues, but in the main these were performed with terrific energy and great conviction by the choir. The sopranos were on fine form, with their top notes ringing out wonderfully well at the climax to the 2nd movement. The performance of the 6th movement, Denn wir haben hie keine bleibende Statt, was a similarly massive one, with the climax "Death, where is thy sting?" thrillingly realised; this was a magnificent moment. Throughout the choir performed with poise and excellent intonation, even if occasionally the tenors got slightly ahead of themselves. This was perhaps a consequence of the rather slow tempos Jenkinson chose for the opening two movements as he was clearly looking to set a scene of transcendental peace. He was, though, not afraid to bring out the bolder moments. The timpani, so important to the dramatic impact of the 2nd movement, were given due prominence. So, too, the horn section, which performed splendidly throughout.
The accomplished soloists Charlotte Kinder (soprano) and Stefan Holmström (baritone) performed with dignity and poise, Holmström in particular with some superb top notes, eloquent vocal phrasing and very clear diction. I wasn´t quite sure why they had to leave the auditorium after each solo when there seemed ample space from where they performed. However, this did not detract from a compelling performance all round of this masterpiece of the 19th century choral repertoire.
© Christopher Dyer
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Rutter Requiem & Bernstein Chichester Psalms
Vale Royal Methodist Church, 2nd July 2005
We go to choral concerts to hear other people sing, so it was a real pleasure the other day to attend a concert given by Royal Tunbridge Wells Choral Society (and friends) in which all their voices could be clearly heard without being swamped by an over-powerful orchestra. All too often these days choirs cannot be heard properly. It is not a question of being unable to hear the words: the musical lines tend to get lost as well, and audiences simply cannot follow passages so lovingly polished in rehearsal.
Sometimes the fault lies with the singers themselves for not giving enough in performance. At other times it is the conductor who must be blamed for not creating proper balance between choir and orchestra. And occasionally, I am afraid, it is the composer himself who must carry the can for over-writing orchestral parts. What looks magnificent on a silent, printed score does not always work well in the lively acoustic of a concert hall, cathedral or church. Even such great masters as Brahms, Elgar and Vaughan-Williams, whose causes I would champion to the death, are sometimes guilty of over-egging their puddings. “The singers had a chance to shine and it was a chance they seized with great enthusiasm.”
None of these problems bothered the RTWCS, in excellent form, giving us spirited performances of choral works needing only limited instrumental support. The singers had a chance to shine, and it was a chance they seized with great enthusiasm. Their conductor, Richard Jenkinson, allowed them only six weeks' rehearsal time, but he ingeniously devised a programme which revealed different aspects of the choir's strength: clarity of diction and purity of tone in Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus, for example; caution thrown to the winds in an exhilarating account of Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms; and a beautifully controlled performance – tranquil with touches of contrasting drama – of John Rutter's Requiem, that remarkable work which within six months of its publication received over 500 performances in the USA alone.
Nor was this by all means all. The RTWCS was very well supported by soloists, including the attractive soprano Emily Ward, now on the threshold of her professional career, with a voice of great purity and promise. From the Royal Tunbridge Wells Symphony Orchestra came Helen Pye, whose oboe playing is always a joy to hear, as is the warm, unfailing musicianship of Chloë Allman-Ward, leader of the cello section. Also taking part were Sarah Wicks (flute), Charlotte Seal (harp), Tim Saxby and Chris Nall (percussion) and at the organ Christopher Harris, whose performance of a fanfare by Jaak Lemmens came as a great delight to his audience – but disturbed all the pigeons within a 300-yard radius of the Vale Royal Methodist Church.
This is a new venue for the Choral Society. They now have a new conductor. They have made changes in their programme-building and in their rehearsal policies. Are these changes likely to be permanent as the RTWCS embarks on its second hundred years of music-making in Tunbridge Wells? It may be too early to say, but one thing is already clear. The high standards of the past years are being fully maintained. Our much-loved choral society has lost none of its vigour or enthusiasm. The prospects for the future sound pretty good to me.
© Robert Hardcastle
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Haydn 'Nelson' Mass & Duruflé Requiem
Assembly Hall, Tunbridge Wells, 17th April 2005.
The Tunbridge Wells Choral Society concert at the Assembly Hall on Sunday 17 April introduced the good-sized audience to a varied programme. Coupling the "Nelson" Mass by Haydn with the Duruflé Requiem and adding on two eighteenth century concertos which featured trumpets was a cunning idea in terms of economical use of orchestra players, but turned out to be less successful musically. The Mass, the Symphony by Boyce and the Concerto by Vivaldi (solo trumpets expertly played by Julian Pore and John Shaddock) complemented each other well. The mood of the Mass is alternately solemn and jubilant. Conductor Richard Jenkinson brought out some fine singing from the choir of 90, marked by good attack and exciting tone. The Bernardi Chamber Orchestra proved a small and tightly-controlled group with some excellent individual players and as such gave a strong support to the choir. The Vivaldi Concerto also allowed us to enjoy the leader Andrew Bernardi´s expressive cadenzas.
The solo quartet of Lesley-Jane Rogers, Patricia Hammond, John Upperton and Graham Dinnage sang with wonderful maturity of tone and interpretation. This was particularly true in the introduction to the Agnus Dei movement.
The Duruflé Requiem proved to be more of a problem. Emotionally, it inhabits another world, although by chance it needs a similiarly-constituted orchestra to accompany. To capture the mood of this deeply introspective work, the performance desperately needs the incense-saturated, acoustically-reverberant atmosphere of a French cathedral. In the dry and very secular surroundings of the Assembly Hall, even the considerable talents of organist Andrew Baars could not conjure us into the right location. He produced some tones commendably reminiscent of a French organ and played with impeccable virtuosity, but in the end the digital organ and dead surroundings defeated his attempts. A similar problem faced the choir. The frequent plainsong-inflected unison lines with ethereal accompaniment cruelly exposed the ensemble, vocal tone and intonation of the choir´s individual parts. The choir needed much more flexibility to their conductor´s expressive directions, but the atmosphere was wrong. Despite this, moments of beauty and drama were apparent. This was a risky piece of programme planning, and the two Baroque orchestral pieces, although played splendidly, did not form a very comfortable frame for this very personal and reticent piece. However, it was good to hear this work and it provided special challenges for all performers, many of which were met with musicianship and commitment.
The programme leaflet contained not only helpful background notes to the music and the performers, but also a tribute to Wilmarc Ellman, who has recently announced his retirement as accompanist to the society after 25 years. This is an essential role which can really transform rehearsals for both conductor and choir, yet one which is largely invisible to audiences at the resulting concerts. The tribute rightly highlights Wilmarc´s considerable skill and versatility as a musician, expresses the Society´s thanks and wishes him well.
© Roger Evernden
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Carols at Goudhurst
12th December 2004
No review available
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Handel's Messiah
Assembly Hall, Tunbridge Wells, 11th November 2004
A Memorable 'Messiah' on Remembrance Sunday
With its themes of suffering and redemption, Handel's matchless masterpiece, 'Messiah', proved an exceptionally fitting way to mark Remembrance Sunday, with a fine performance from the Royal Tunbridge Wells Choral Society at the Assembly Hall. However familiar Handel's glorious arias and choruses, the potency of the drama that unfolds can still come with a sense of thrilling shock.
This performance effected a harmonious interpretation, with deft, exceptionally well-controlled playing by small orchestral forces, with fine keyboard continuo from Wilmarc Ellman and subtle - and occasionally arresting - ornamentation from the very accomplished soloists.
The selection of tempi is always a challenge: too fast, and the rich texture of the scoring of the inner parts can be submerged; too slow, and the impetus which needs to be sustained can be lost. Again good judgment was in evidence: a brisk pace - with occasional exceptions - kept a strong sense of momentum. The chorus coped admirably with the changing dynamics and speeds, and never better than with the wonderful contrasts of 'Since by man'. There was, however, an evident straining at the leash at rare moments of over-excitement, including the urgent, if breathless 'Hallelujah'.
Intonation was excellent, balance good - although at times a Russian basso profondo or two would have helped to anchor the choir still more firmly. A small point: many singers' heads remained buried in their scores, with too little facial and hence vocal expression - bad for the conductor and bad for the audience, too: the choir is a key part of the performance, an actor in its own right. It can therefore add dramatic impact to signal the kaleidoscopic shifts of mood which Handel engineers, such as the searingly poignant 'And the Lord hath laid', or the taunts of 'He trusted in God'.
Among the many highlights was a richly eloquent rendition of 'The trumpet shall sound', where Jeremy Clack's superbly clear trumpet gave excellent support to the supple bass-baritone of Gerard Delrez. There were also excellent effects in 'Lift up your heads', with neat contrast provided by the small semi-chorus.
The soloists indeed offered many memorable moments, with Lesley-Jane Rogers (soprano) demonstrating pure musicality, especially in a sadly-curtailed affirmation of 'I know that my Redeemer liveth' and an expressive 'Rejoice greatly', and Jon English both lyrical and eloquent, not least in the exacting ranges required by 'Thou shalt break them'. William Missin's counter-tenor displayed the same clean lines and sensitive musicianship, though there could have been a greater sense of passion, for example in his duet with tenor 'O Death, where is thy sting'. This is - and needs to be - part of a triumphant denouement, preparing us for the ecstatic 'Amen', the astonishing final 11 bars of which evoked a fittingly warm, enthusiastic response from an attentive, appreciative audience.
Congratulations to everyone, and a special word for the new conductor Richard Jenkinson, who has already made his mark impressively and from whom many more good things can be looked forward to eagerly.
© David Taylor
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Gala Centenary Concert - with Bach Choir of Wiesbaden
May 2004
The three works chosen for this groundbreaking concert were a 21st century tribute to 20th century music. In the Poulenc Gloria the combined choirs made a powerful entry on Gloria in Excelsis Deo. It was followed by a serenely beautiful Domine Deus sung by Charlotte Ellett. Her soprano floated effortlessly above the orchestra and chorus to fill the Assembly Hall with gorgeous unforced sound.
After a storm of applause, Klaus Uwe Ludwig from Wiesbaden performed Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. Each solo passage was splendidly taken, the big tune ripe and schmaltzy. I doubt that I shall ever hear a better or more exciting live performance than this.
In the final piece, Belshazzar's Feast by William Walton, the opening repeated chords from the trombones followed by male voices were electrifying in their effect. The clarity of the orchestral playing was matched by the excellent enunciation of the choir. The baritone Anthony Michael-Moore excelled in the solo role, handling the crucial solo passages of the narration with an assured dramatic thrust and firmness of tone. No praise is high enough for the singers, whose choral sound was sharp and dramatic, or the orchestra, the quality of whose playing was matchless throughout, or for their conductor, who carried music of these very different styles forward with an easy responsive elegance matched by great care for balance.
Derek Watmough could not have brought his long career with the society to a more successful or more rewarding conclusion. He will be greatly missed.
© Robert Hardcastle
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Spring Concert
Ravel Pavane, Fauré Requiem & Rutter Magnificat
Assembly Hall - 13th April 2003
Review not available - click on image to view programme
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Bach Christmas Oratorio
30th November 2003 in the Assembly Hall
In Memory of Mary Standen
This concert was directed by guest conductor Steven Devine. Derek Watmough will return in May to conduct his last concert before his retirement, after 30 years with the society.
This performance was especially notable because of the linking of a traditional British choral society with Finchcocks Baroque, an orchestra where period instruments were played in a truly authentic manner. Steven Devine chose lively tempi and this immediately captured the life and energy of Baroque music.
It was to the choir of about ninety's credit that it caught the sense of vitality heralded by the orchestra. Considerable care was taken with phrasing and diction and a sense of line was always evident.
There was a true partnership between the excellent team of solo voices and the solo instruments, The urgent continuity between the items achieved by Steven Devine contributed greatly to the sense of drama and narrative. His timing was impeccable, exactly matching the mood changes, relaxing into contemplation when necessary. The choir responded with confidence and clearly regarded themselves as an equal partner with the orchestra rather than being accompanied by them.
The solo voices were Faye Newton (soprano), with her beautifully clear and pure vocal line, David Clegg (counter tenor) who is well known for his ability to portray characterisation and drama, Joseph Cornwell (tenor), whose narrative recitatives had great flexibility and control and Simon Grant (bass) who managed to convey religious detachment and strong presentation. These voices were of the highest calibre both in vocal quality and in musicianship. Their dignified and unobtrusive movements from stage left to centre to take part in the story added to the inherent drama of the music.
The soft tone of the instruments allowed a wonderful blend between the array of woodwind, including the oboe d'amore and original flauto traverso, and the gentle strings. The continuo was a fine balance between chamber organ and harpsichord placed on opposite sides of the orchestra. All the musicians played with a sense of articulation, so that a smaller dynamic range than we are used to was more than compensated for by the subtle shaping of musical lines. The clarity and energy of the orchestral sound encouraged the choir into an athleticism of which it can be proud. Steven Devine clearly saw them as equal partners and treated the amateur choir with the same unfussy trust and respect that he expected from the professional orchestra and they responded to his scholarly understanding of this splendid music.
The result was a performance which demonstrated a sense of artistic integrity beauty and excitement.
© Roger Evendon
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Carols at Goudhurst
15th December 2002
No review available - click on image to view programme.
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Vaughan Williams The Sea Symphony & In Windsor Forest
11th November 2002
Devoting a whole programme to a single composer, in this case Ralph Vaughan Williams, is not something that usually goes down well at the box office and to choose one of his most demanding works the Sea Symphony, as the main attraction, suggests a degre of audience loyalty to which most performing societies can only aspire.
But on the whole the Choral Society's courage paid rich dividends. The opening work was the increasingly popular romance The Lark Ascending. More robust fare followed with the cantata In Windsor Forest, consisting of five songs chosen by Vaughan Williams from his opera To John in Love. The various sections of the choir were heard to good advantage against the fairly lightly-scored orchestral settings used by Vaughan Williams for these very characteristic pieces.
The main work of the afternoon was the Sea Symphony, a huge floundering piece, halfway between a symphony and a cantata, based on a poem by Walt Whitman. Here the orchestra really came into their own: the opening fanfare, and the great shout from the chorus Behold, the Sea, were electrifying in their effect.
Of the contrasting more reflective passages, perhaps the most magical was On The Beach At Night Alone, beautifully sung by the baritone Johnathan Gunthorpe, with great feeling for infinite space and time. His fellow soloist, soprano Yvette Bonner, sang with clarity and purity of tone but she could not always be heard above the tempestuous orchestra.
To be fair, the same has to be said about the chorus as a whole, but for this state of affairs Vaughan Williams himself is largely responsible.
The Royal Tunbridge Wells Choral Society served Vaughan Williams well, perhaps even better than the great man deserved.
© Robert Hardcastle
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Opera Gala Concert
Assembly Hall - 14th April 2002
A Concert of Popular Opera Arias and Choruses
No review available
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Carols at Goudhurst
16th December 2001
No review available - click on image to view programme.
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Mozart - Requiem & Symphony no. 40
11th November 2001
Mozart's great Requiem Mass in D minor (K626) was the main work in the concert given by the Royal Tunbridge Wells Choral Society in the Assembly Hall on Remembrance Sunday.
From the first entry the chorus impressed with their admirable clarity of diction: what a blessing it is when even from a familiar text the words are clearly heard.
The balance between the tenors and basses on the one hand, and the greater number of altos and sopranos on the other, was also well managed, and the way in which the the chorus as a whole dealt with their entrances and exits was a tribute not only to Derek Watmough's thorough training of the choir in rehearsal, but also to his well-tried conducting technique.
There was at least one moment, in the Offertorium, when I caught his baton positively quivering with intensity.
The RTWCS chose its four soloists with equal care. Each of them sang their solo parts with individual distinction, but when their voices came together either in duet or quartet, the ensemble also worked well.
The soprano Rachel Nicholls has a pure clarity of tone, while the mezzo-soprano Kathryn Turpin provided an effective contrast with her warmth and smoothness of line.
Kevin McLean Mair, who trained at Aldeburgh, has one of those attractive English tenor voices entirely free of mannerism, and Martin Robson has a splendid Giovanni-like bass that filled the Assembly Hall with no difficulty at all.
© Robert Hardcastle
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Rutter Requiem & Puccini Messa di Gloria
8th April 2001
What a joy it was to hear a choral concert so full of good tunes, as presented by the Royal Tunbridge Wells Choral Society and their musical director Derek Watmough. First we heard Puccini's Messa di Gloria a fresh youthful work.
The piece is delicately and ingeniously scored. The brass section is used sparingly, but to great effect, as befits an admirer of Verdi. The benefit of such skill and restraint in the use of the orchestra was immediately apparent in the Kyrie, in which Derek Watmough achieved a perfect balance between voices and strings.
Then followed the splendidly spirited Gloria - a tune more suitable for a music hall than a church, one might feel - which gives way to a tenor solo once described as the first genuine Puccini aria.
Then is the Gratias agimus tibi, in which Huw Rhys-Evans excelled, as he did in the Credo, later, with Et incarnatus. The South African-born baritone John Fletcher, was also very impressive in the poignant Crucifixus est and in the solo Benedictus in the middle of the choral Sanctus.
Surprisingly perhaps, there is very little for the soprano to do in this work - Alison Smart's delightful voice was to be heard to great advantage later in the concert - but the two male soloists worked extremely well together as they sang their alternate parts in the Agnus Dei, supported by more fine singing from the chorus.
Almost certainly composed for some other purpose, this closing section of the Messa di Gloria is structurally the weakest link, to coin a phrase.
It leads to the Mass or at least the music, to a sticky end, and the audience had to be reassured by the conductor before allowing itself to applaud! But applaud it did most generously, and rightly so, for all the glories that had gone before.
After the interval came the Requiem by John Rutter, one of the most attractive of recent works by British composers, which in less than twenty years has won for itself a permanent place in the choral repertoire.
And it is not difficult to see why. As we know from his celebrated carols, John Rutter knows all about writing for the human voice, his orchestral skill and sense of scale and shape are of a standard to match, and he writes tunes Andrew Lloyd Webber would give his eye teeth for.
The work opens with a solemn funeral beat that creates an atmosphere of sinister gloom, suddenly dispersed by a wonderful burst of sound on lux aeterna. From that moment on all is well, and we are carried forward to the moving simplicity of the Kyrie.
The second section, Out of the Deep has a demanding cello obligato, very well played by the Royal Tunbridge Wells Choral Society's Chloe Allman-Ward, while in the pastoral The Lord is my sheperds setting there were also quite outstanding performances from Helen Pye (oboe) and Jane Lister (harp).
The choir remained seated as they gave celestial backing to Alison Smart's moving Pie Jesu, while under Derek Watmough's direction the choir and the orchestra, led by Martin Palmer, created a marvellous sense of fulfillment as they brought Rutter's work, unlike that of Puccini, to a most satisfying and convincing conclusion.
© Robert Hardcastle
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