Given what people generally seem to think about the BBC Singers, might it not be the last time we hear David Hill live with A choir?

(sniggers)

As I write I am listening to the Ash Wednesday service from St John's - except that this is from 1986. Deep black-toned basses, sostenuto, non-operatic tenors, and dark, full-toned altos and trebs. A softness of patina that absolutely suited the content of the service.

I have just listened to the Ash Wednesday service from St John's - from 2007. The difference is instructive as a purely aural experience. What the BBC were doing with the levels / mikes etc in 2007 I can't begin to imagine, but the whole thing made me feel slightly sea-sick, so variable and extraordinary were the shifting in and out perspectives. The sound was sharp-edged, even aggressively so, favoured the trebles and altos, and rendered the basses a distant presence. Every major climax the whole thing shifted back several paces, and suddenly the choir were 20 feet further away. Weird or what?

Singing: well, the brisk, assertive tenors in the Byrd cut through anyone else, and the trebles in THIS piece were almost nowhere - OK, it's a broken voice-heavy piece. The Allegri was odd: plainchant a solo tenor recitativo secco leading into verses sung by very good, ringing top boy(s), but the absolute stars of the show throughout the service were a good boy second treb and a terrific alto section. But the whole thing was a bit business-like, lacking in warmth? The Malcolm Magnificat was impressive and well articulated - here the altos and both treb lines are expertly managed, and a lovely meeting of plainchant and rich plangent harmonies. The Holst started terrifcally well- low with soft growling, but then substituted length for inspiration - suspicions about pitch in this fiendishly tricky piece. Then came the new Rutter anthem dedicated to George Guest: solo cor anglais well pitched against low organ textures and some inventive and imaginatively shaped melodic lines - well sung. Not a show-stopper, but right for the liturgy.

That left the Bach: 'By the waters of Babylon' voluntary. What on earth was going on here I leave to organ buffs, but to me the registration was so peculiar as to remind me of Reggie Dixon warming up ppp over slow, soft, fuzzy bass textures that made it sag and waffle like wet cotton wool. Startling.

It all seemed very, very low key, almost indifferent, and that was not the quietness of reverence at all, just....well, task to be done, let's do it and get out. Were some key boys ill? Sorry to be so luke-warm, but it just wasn't what I was expecting at all. Can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe others can. Maybe I am alone.

I'm looking forward to St Thomas Fifth Avenue's webcast tonight which includes the Allegri again - 5.30 New York time, so about 10.30 UK time, I presume?

It's really sad that in another place the interesting discussion about this service - including a helpful contribution from someone who was actually there - has been shut down.

Somehow we need to make this forum more widely known about in choral circles so that anyone looking for feedback about a CE at which they've been present, or, even better, in which they participated, would find it.

 

Just listened to this on LA and haven't much to add to the already posted perceptive comments.

I didn't think the Malcolm Mag was terribly inspired/interesting/significant.

But maybe that's just me.

I liked everything else though, including the voluntary which I thought was very sensitively played.

BTW Did anyone else think the translation of the bible used for the NT reading was a bit blunt: "...One of the sons turned his inheritance into cash ..." Extraordinary!

BWS

Fascinating SFF - I've been through 20 translations and haven't found that version - must be the 'New Trendy Chaplaincy Version' (NTCV) - but I'm happy to stand corrected if it is a current mainstream version...outside of the 20 I have access to!

Hello Cathy

The smoke signals my cloister dwelling spies have intercepted have assured me that there is nothing sinister in Norwich: the sub-organist is leaving Norwich for reasons of his own and this has given David the opportunity to do a "Colin Walsh" and do the thing he loves - ie play the organ. The new DoM will have resposibility for both choirs and David will hide upstairs, making lovely noises.

BWS

Well, there's no liturgical reason why you cannot have the same Mag every day of the year, if you wanted to. There's also no special significance in Psalm 51 except that it is a tradition that has evolved throughout English-type-cathedral-music that the Allegri is sung on Ash Wednesday, or, at least, during Lent.

However, it seems really inappropriate to pre-empt Lent by singing it the day before, and confirms what I've long suspected about Oxbridge Colleges, which is that the daily round of services is often used simply as a means of public rehearsal for the next glamorous high profile gig (this especially used to be the case at New College, Oxford, where service after service would have an "anthem" taken from the next lot of Purcell and Handel to be recorded). Not very nice, IMO, and not what it's all about.

BWS