Tag: Bach Choir

Brilliant evening of Bach

The “Brilliance of Bach” turned Saturday 18 June 2022 into a suitably brilliant evening. There had been some apprehension, because the choir are still recovering from the long shut down due to the pandemic and we were only able to field about half of our usual complement.

But the evening was a splendid mixture of different Bach delicacies, with variety being the key. Darius Battiwalla’s organ playing, especially in the Toccata and Fugue in D minor was stunning, bringing some of the audience to their feet at the end in appreciation. There was a similar rapturous reception for the excellent rendering of the Concerto in D minor BWV1043 by members of the National Festival Orchestra. The audience watched spellbound as the violins of Sally Robinson and Rachael England seemed to come alive in their hands.

Against this background of brilliance the choir presented several pieces, from simple to highly complex, with variety again being the theme, demonstrating the mastery and talent of this most special of composers.

Stand-in conductor, our President George Nicholson, who has been instrumental in encouraging the choir back from such a long, enforced absence, together with our highly accomplished accompanist Ruth Nicholson on organ and harpsichord completed a splendid evening of music.

We had a capacity audience, and are so grateful to all of you for supporting us. We hope you enjoyed your evening.

Paul Downing

The Magic of Elijah

THE MAGIC OF MENDELSSOHN – AND HIS 1846 MASTERPIECE


First heard at the 1846 Birmingham Festival, Elijah was alleged to have been accorded at its first hearing the greatest reception in all musical history. The enthusiastic manner of those present at what was, clearly, a glorious premiere in the sumptuous surroundings of Birmingham Town Hall is the stuff of legend.

Mendelssohn was, of course, the first musical polymath. His activities encompassed so much and ticked so many boxes – executant (viola, violin, piano, organ to name but four capacities), “music director”/concert organiser”, speaker, public figure and, perhaps pre-eminently, his profound and seemingly ceaseless creative spirit as a composer – an art he developed prodigiously and very rapidly from a very young age.

It is truly remarkable that, at a time when most contemporary youngsters are tackling their GCSE exams, Mendelssohn had already composed one of the most perfect pieces of chamber music ever written – the Octet for strings. During the years when many adults are still in further education he had under his belt two Overtures that remain today corner-stones of the orchestral repertoire: that to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and a concert overture entitled The Hebrides [perhaps better know as Fingal’s Cave] as well as his very first book of eight sets of Songs without Words.

 His kindly, warm demeanour made him many friends – that is certain. But the number of commitments he undertook – many of them ensuing from such personal contacts and friendships – had a truly detrimental effect on his health and strength and he was dead from a stroke well before he was forty years of age.

 

JUST WHAT IS IT THAT MAKES ELIJAH SO VERY SPECIAL?
Perhaps mostly because it was such a pioneering work – a prototype in the experience of choral and orchestral music. It was its composer’s second oratorio as such – the first being St Paul of exactly ten years previous, for the Lower Rhine Festival of 1836. There are far fewer smash hit numbers in Elijah than in St Paul – though the sustained level of the drama in the later work makes one increasingly regretful that Mendelssohn never wrote an opera.  Another of Mendelssohn’s works that feels like an oratorio, the Hymn of Praise [Lobgesang] is actually a cantata, and the concluding part of its composer’s second symphony.

In the first part of Elijah, the momentum of the “trial” elements between Jehovah and Baal carries all before it whilst the dialogue between Ahab and Elijah involving the chorus – Thou art Elijah, thou he that troubleth Israel – is similarly spectacular and in stark contrast to the warm benevolence of the scene between the prophet and the widow, through which the son of the grief-stricken mother is brought back to life.

Besides the inherent scriptural narrative, which the composer maintains with persuasion and authority, there are a number of significant influences from earlier music: the hushed Chorale Cast thy burden upon the Lord, the undulating Jewish chant heard in Lord, bown Thine ear to our prayer and, particularly, the Handelian use of choral recitative. At the end of the opening chorus beginning at the words: The deeps afford no water and the rivers are exhausted…the composer is at his most persuasive with all factors combining to yield a powerful response from both performer and listener.

Handel had used a choral recitative to similar effect in Israel in Egypt a hundred years earlier in the chorus He sent a thick darkness o’er all the land….a thick darkness….. even darkness which might be felt.

 Throughout the work, and most especially in the first half, there are a number of what might best be referred to as “motto” themes – especially in the orchestration. The sonorous and portentous opening chords heralding the opening recitative announcing God’s drought to the people recur later as to the haunting descending intervals with the starkness of the use of a falling diminished fifth. These techniques are later used in his operas by Wagner and, of course, most notably of all in the very first English oratorio to establish an international reputation, namely Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, like Elijah premiered at the Birmingham Festival. Elgar’s Prelude or overture to The Dream is reflective and motif-led with elements of procession, reflection, even miniature arias but its elements pervade the whole work.

Mendelssohn’s Overture is much more conventional, though no less powerful. In particular, the startling use of rests in the main subject is stirred up at the climax to provide a gloriously exultant, yet suitably imploring, lead to the words of the opening Chorus – Help, Lord, wilt Thou quite destroy us.

 There are a number of instances in the chorus writing where massive homophonic, chorale-like utterances take over the texture – as in But yet the Lord seeth not [at For He, the Lord our God, He is jealous God] and, most notably The Lord is God, O Israel hear during The fire descends from heaven.

 In Part One, the continuous sequence of choruses [unknown before in music] known as the Baal Choruses is truly immense in its intensity, and at times almost, frenzied utterance. There is nothing in all music like it prior to Wagner.

 The successor to Elijah, his heir, the young Elisha, is depicted by a treble voice during the course of a lengthy final movement at the end of the first half of the work when the young man is instructed to respond to the prophet’s questions – has my prayer been heard by the Lord. Negative answers follow until finally a cloud of rain appears along with an accompanying storm wonderfully depicted in the chorus of victory Thanks be to God, he laveth the thirsty land…..the waters gather, they rush along…the stormy billows are high, their fury is mighty and, most original of all the setting of the layered texts at the words but the Lord is above them and almighty – this must have sounded amazingly modern to the ears of the early Victorian audiences.

Gradually, in Part Two, the mood of the people is incited to move against Elijah: Woe to him they sing at the tops of their voices: Let the guilty prophet perish…He shall die. A semi-chorus of angels sings the opening stanza of Psalm 121 – Lift thine eyes and a balm-like chorus, He watching over Israel, provides some of the most exquisite minutes in the work. The climax of the story and the paradox of divinity are wonderfully conjoined and we discover in the strongly-wrought chorus Behold! God the Lord passed by that the appearance of the deity is not through, or by means of earthquake, fire or storm but in the still, small voice after which follows a massive double Chorus – Holy, holy, holy. Other real highlights of the second half of the work are the simple, choral-like He that shall endure to the end and the prophet’s dramatic ascent to heaven – like a whirlwind – in Then did Elijah the Prophet break forth like a fire. Ultimately, a consoling final quartet is followed by a resonant chorus of praise set to a text devised from Psalm 8 – Lord, our Creator, how excellent Thy Name is in all the nations…Amen sings the Choir at full force on the final page.

Messiah Memories

by Simon Lindley

It remains one of life’s profound mysteries that Messiah is widely regarded as the sacred work to perform during, or even slightly before, Advent in preparation for Christmas. But that is how things are!

A comparatively small amount of the work is concerned with the Nativity, though there’s prophetic material a-plenty at the outset and a huge corpus of music dealing with the consequences of the birth – ministry, suffering, death, Resurrection and the famous “last things” with which the Book of Revelation is so strongly concerned.

Many will have a huge stock of memories of the work – of performances that have been memorable (hopefully for the right sort of reason), of occasions that have proved a triumph over the adversity and that could involve anything from the sudden indisposition of a soloist to something as mundane as a power cut. Maybe the interpretative nuance provided by a particular solo singer, or group of soloists, was such that the memory of a very special event remains with us still, years and years later.

Messiah is high in what the marketing boys and girls refer to as “the tingle factor” and that facet plays a significant part in the powerful effect of the piece as a whole and each of the three parts in particular.

There are extra-mural aspects of the piece, too. Chief among these is the special connection with charity resulting from the work being devised specifically for the benefit and relief of prisoners in the Dublin Gaols. Subsequently, in its composer’s lifetime, London performances were often a means of raising much-needed funds for one of Handel’s favourite charitable endeavours – the Foundling Hospital – whose important work with children and families is continued to this day by the Coram Foundation in Bloomsbury. Both Handel and his contemporary William Hogarth were indefatigable supporters of the Foundling Hospital and both served long periods as governors of the institution. Sheffield Bach Choir is proud to have played its part in arranging present-day retiring collections in aid of local social endeavour, specifically the Archer Project at the Cathedral over the past few years. At the conclusion of this year’s music-making, there will be a retiring collection for a project associated with the Victoria Hall.

It is the pathos and sense of rhetoric communicated through the music that is significant in terms of the masterly verbal selection secured by Charles Jennens, the Leicestershire squire who devised the libretto. Though there are quotations a-plenty from the 1611 King James Bible, it is the influence of the Book of Common Prayer issued half a century later, in 1662, that is even more powerful. The texts drawn from the Burial Service and the Easter Anthems in the work’s third part never fail to move listener and performer alike and, beside the evocative Old Testament texts there are the movements drawn from the great treasury of the Psalms of David – the extraordinarily declamatory Let all the angels of God and The Lord gave the word are prime examples of such vivid treatments.

Much is made by musical historians of the speed at which Handel completed the piece, and yet it’s worth remembering that a great amount of the musical score consists of only two instrumental parts and a single vocal line – some of the best-known movements fall into this category: O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, Rejoice greatly, How beautiful are the feet, If God be for us and, of course, the glorious I know that my Redeemer liveth. Even the most complex numbers only comprise ten musical lines in all.

Legendary Bach Choir conductor, Dr Roger Bullivant MBE, was invariably wont to use as the basis for his edition of Messiah the instrumental material from the Bourne Original Edition issued in the early years of the last century. Investigation by Bach Choir member Jen Smith has been helpful in locating background information on this trail-blazing musicologist whose work on Handel’s masterpiece pre-dated the great Dr Watkins Shaw’s by some six decades. It is hoped to be able to give a full account of T W Bourne and his great work in some future programme and perhaps on the Bach Society’s Website.

Major factors in the scoring are concerned with the oboe parts and the harmonised contributions of the so-called continuo material devised by the stylish harpsichordist or organist in accordance with a numerical system of musical short-hand printed beneath the cello and double bass line known as “figured bass” by which means the composer indicates the harmonies to be played above this bassus generalis.

It was perhaps inevitable under the circumstances that Handel would, to some degree, find the need to re-utilise material originally devised for another purpose. He drew upon a double concerto for orchestra and horns to provide the basis of the magnificent chorus Lift up your heads. Anyone wishing to investigate the origin of some others of the best-loved of the choruses need look no further than the complete vocal compositions of Johannes Brahms, who devised special accompaniments for Handel’s Italian love duets that form the basis of movements such as And He shall purify, For unto us a Child is born and His yoke is easy. Thus, some of the “music that became Messiah” is to be found in the duet section of Brahms’s complete works.

There will be those at the performance who may well remember “their” very first Messiah whether as singer, player, listener or conductor. Some senior members of the community will have a veritable galaxy of recollection involving many occasions.

Perhaps few Yorkshire adult choristers will ever equal the recall of George Swindells, in whose memory this year’s rendition is being given. His prodigious memory, the huge fund of memories of conductors and their foibles – very especially of the legendary Sir John Barbirolli – all this contributed to George’s great enthusiasm for this masterpiece, and so many other choral masterworks too. His long loyalty to choral institutions in and around Sheffield benefited many choral groups – perhaps predominantly Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus, Sheffield Bach Choir and Dore Male Voice Choir. Large representation from each of these musical institutions was seen, and heard, at the memorial thanksgiving for George’s life held in this very building just a few months ago.

The Bach Choir is delighted to be able to welcome members of the Philharmonic Chorus joining with us for this performance. We all remember George with admiration and much affection. Just a few short months ago, in the Summer of 2012, he submitted himself once again for re-audition to the Bach Choir – bringing along with him on a balmy summer’s evening and giving the small number of Bach Choir officers privileged to hear it a performance of Lord God of Abraham from Elijah that could have been directly transferred to live radio or CD, such was its quality. One was, simply, left lost for words. One of those ample eyebrows of his raised at the end enquired wordlessly as to whether the rendition was acceptable – acceptable? it was magnificent. No other word will do. Thank you, George, for what you brought to us all in so many ways – commitment, loyalty, sheer musicality, a good understanding of the power of words and a fine, natural voice are qualities that shone through everything you did.

Musicians Muster for Centenary

Musicians from all over the North of England and further afield head for Sheffield on Saturday 23 November, the weekend of the centenary of the birth of Benjamin Britten in Aldeburgh in 1913, for a gala concert of British Music at St Mark’s in Broomhill – a church celebrating itself this Autumn the fiftieth anniversary of its re-consecration in 1963 following war damage, and now widely acknowledged as one of the finest of England’s more modern churches.

The concert by Sheffield Bach Choir with the National Festival Orchestra features the Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings and the “St Nicolas Cantata” by Britten. Special guests include the acclaimed choristers from St John’s Ranmoor, directed by Ian Roberts and young soloists from Wakefield Cathedral and Leeds Minster. It is the second occasion in recent years that the Bach Choir has been joined by the Ranmoor choristers – on the first occasion they played the parts of ragamuffins in Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana”; this time their music is rather more conventional in character. Well-known horn soloist Jenny Cox joins Bach Choir regular guest Tenor Stephen Liley from Bedfordshire in the line up and the evening unfolds from Gustav Holst’s Two Psalms of 1912 featuring Stephen and Sheffield soprano Jenny Leadbeater in principal roles. Getting on for 120 performers in all, we reckon!