The Organ Music of Sir Walter Alcock
Daniel Cook plays the organ of Salisbury Cathedral
To read a review of this CD by Stephen D. Smith follow this link: http://www.organrecitals.com/p/cd-alcock.html
Superb Society's ambitious work
There is a venturesome spirit within the Grange Choral Society; one that is prepared to try something different, and
in Saturday's inspired concert they conveyed to stunning effect the glories of voice, brass percussion and organ under Daniel Cook's baton.
Concluding with John Rutter's Gloria the entire ensemble plus the soaring soprano soloist Katharine Hawnt ensured this powerful paean drew a performance to match the ambitious scoring.
Parry's anthem I Was Glad, accompanied by organ, had that extra edge with supporting brass ensemble, the Grange singers revelling in the challenge.
Bruckner's motets are gems of choral excellence and here the Grange performed six . . . some a cappella and others with brass. If the highest degree of polish was occasionally missing these were still distinguished accounts.
Organist Ian Wicks joined forces with the brass ensemble in an arrangement of Gigout's only well known work; the Grand Choeur Dialogue and quiet a spectacle it was, also in solo he shook the Priory's foundations with Walton's magnificent Crown Imperial.
Elgar's Great is the Lord
with bass soloist Richard Hooper and organ accompaniment was impressive but surpassed by Parry's Hear My Words, Ye People with the panoply of brass, chorus and both soloists in stirring form. A superb concert and hopefully something similar may follow. Mike Marsh
(edited)
Elgar's Dream of Gerontius
Grange Choral Society celebrates 50th anniversary
What better time than the 50th anniversary to pause and appreciate the significant contribution it has made, and continues to make, to the cultural life of the area.
In an age when British choral heritage - particularly in the Christian context - is less-widely valued or supported than it once was, the choir's broad repertoire and continuing membership of around 150 voices, along with the high musical standards it maintains together represent a major achievement. That should be recognised, valued and celebrated.
(Of the soloists) it was a significant fact that all three had sung in the Grange's last performance of the work in 2006. They are all performers of great presence and distinction.
Under the baton of Daniel Cook the choir responded well to the wide variety of timbre and mood demanded by Elgar's music. In addition to the full choir parts his score also often makes use of a semi-chorus . . . That role was filled by the Salisbury-based Farrant Singers, another of Daniel's choirs . .. Mention must also be made of the Grange Orchestra augmented to almost 50 players . . . they stamped their mark on the performance right from the start of the sombre prelude.
This concert was a memorable occasion for the society to look back and mark the achievements of the last 50 years. But, with the magnificent venue of Christchurch Priory, and interesting programmes already planned for the next two years . . . it also has every reason to look forward confidently to the future. D.B. (edited quote published in The New Milton Advertiser)
Verdi Requiem
Beautiful requiem - Not so much an opera, more a requiem; that seemed to be the aim of Daniel Cook, musical director of the Grange Choral Society . . .
If that was the objective, then the whole ensemble achieved that with remarkable unanimity. In effect this was the most beautiful account of (the) Verdi Requiem that I have heard.
Take, for example, the Offertorio in which the melting voices of the four soloists - Claire Rutter, Susan Mackenzie-Park, David Rendall and Stephen Gadd - melded in sacred harmony. The necessity for top-rate soloists paid off time and again where their strength of projection over a sumptuous orchestra was undiminished.
. . . To be sure there was no want of drama and the dynamic range was impressively controlled. The Grange Orchestra responded with beauty of phrasing, thundering force and facility of delivery.
The choir were on impeccable form and the expansive pace enabled that sensitivity to the words, such as the haunting Lacrimosa, space to blossom. Mike Marsh (edited quote)
. . . it can truly be said that recently appointed musical director Daniel Cook has stamped his authority on the choral society scene . . . his innate musicianship standing him in good stead and enabling him to produce a stunning performance of one of the most dramatic works in the choral repertoire.
. . . It was clear from the beautifully subdued and atmospheric opening pages of the Requiem and vigorous double fugue of the Kyrie that the choir was on top form. The well-known Dies Irae broke in with a staggering impact that no amount of listening to recordings of this music could have prepared one for! It is a very long time since music of such intensity and force has been heard at a Grange concert. Nor did the choir's obvious total commitment to the music falter at any point . . . the singers gave everything Daniel Cook asked of them.
The Grange Orchestra - for this occasion heavy with extra brass and percussion - likewise gave of their all in presenting Verdi's colourful and taxing, and at times frankly terrifying, score.
. . . This reviewer came to this work with some disposition against both the imposition of such an operatic musical style on a sacred text, and the theology implicit in the text itself. The fact that he nearly had the courage to rise to his feet to instigate a standing ovation says everything about the quality of the performance! For Daniel Cook to achieve such a stunning result within a year of becoming the society's musical director is an undoubted triumph: it can only leave everyone looking to future Grange concerts with excited anticipation.
(edited quote)
Missa Ego flos campi
Early choral music from Spain and Latin America
Despite the damp British summer weather, The Farrant Singers whisked their audience to warmer climes with a concert of Spanish-influenced choral music. It had all the oft-quoted essentials for a good story; touches of religion, royalty, romance and an element of mystery. Religion and Royalty? This was a programme of sacred music including works from the Spanish 16th Century composer Francisco Guerrero, who was well-respected in the court of King Philip II of Spain. An element of romance, even sensuousness, came with Guerrero’s setting in Latin of words from the Song of Songs. “I sat down under the shadow of him I desire and his fruit was sweet to my taste.”
If that wasn’t enough, we crossed to Mexico where sacred choral music was alive and well in the 17th century; Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla emigrated from Spain to be musical director for Puebla Cathedral Choir for nearly 40 years. We heard his lengthy Missa Ego Flos Campi. For the singers this was a demanding sing with some tricky syncopated rhythms and striking antiphonal effects; it’s a pity the choir didn’t separate to give the audience the full effect. Nonetheless, this was indeed a sonorous wash of unaccompanied singing in the resonant acoustic of St Martin’s, from a well-blended choir under the graceful direction of Daniel Cook who allowed the music to breathe, with sensible tempos and sensitive phrasing.
A very pleasant spicing of this musical paella came from the excellent Ancora Duo (flautist Anne Allen and guitarist Sarah Freestone) who played more modern works from Piazzolla and Pujol, both from Argentina. The combination of irregular rhythms, hint of a tango, and sheer Latin American colour and drive provided a very pleasant contrast to the sublime content of the rest of the concert.
And the mystery element in this concert? Whether the Flamenco dancer depicted in a piece played by the duo was male or female. A question left unresolved as we left in the pouring English rain.
Stuart Robinson
The King and the Robin
The Farrant Singers, reinvigorated with some new members, sang an ambitious programme of English music that wove spells that not even a few stray fireworks could puncture.
Philip Moore, for 25 years Organist and Master of the Choristers at York Minster, is constantly being commissioned to write new music and with music of this quality and individuality it is not hard to see why. The Farrant Singers began with Lo! God is here, a piece written for the tercentenary of St Paul’s Cathedral. Immediately it was apparent that here was a choir on resurgent top form with well defined balance and flexibilty of tone to the fore. The interplay between the plainsong soprano solo and hymn was beautifully poised.
The Three Prayers of Dietrich Bonhoeffer are a masterpiece of unaccompanied choral writing. Conductor Daniel Cook directed the choir with calm assurance and a deep awareness of choral colour and musical phrasing. Under his guidance the choir brought an anguished tenderness and a poignancy to these pieces that was very touching.
The first half closed with a polished performance of Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb. Britten sets sections of Christopher Smart’s poem "Jubilate Agno". The eighteenth century poet was in an asylum for the insane when he wrote it, and it is not difficult to see his madness in the poem (although it would have been good to have the text in our programme). It is reported that his insanity led him to sudden compulsions to pray in public, at any time or place. So although he writes about his cat Jeffrey and a mouse praising God just through their very nature it is the religious character of the work that is the most striking. The music of the ten short sections brings Britten’s genius into sharp focus as each vignette in the poem is given a unique treatment. The choir brought beauty to the lilting Hallelujahs and more than enough vigour to the tricky rhythmic sections.
The concert was notable for the fourteen members of the#choir who were given solo opportunities including a cameo from the conductor. The solos Britten writes here are amongst the finest in the repertory. Organist Timothy Hone who played two solos, a reflective Psalm Prelude by Howells and the ecstatic Alleluyas by Simon Preston, provided excellent support to the choir throughout the evening with clear articulation and a carefully judged palette of musical colour.
Viri Galilaei by Patrick Gowers is a dramatic depiction of the Ascension of Jesus to heaven. Utilising the two organs in St Martin’s Church and divided choral forces it opens with a shower of shimmering stars played on the chamber organ by Andrej Kousnetzov, the Cathedral Organ Scholar, accompanied by ethereal Alleluias from the choir. This texture leads to a triumphant hymn in which the double choir texture swirls in a most engaging style with the sure support of the main organ providing a rumbustuous accompaniment. Eventually the dense texture vanishes into nothing as Christ disappears from view. The choir relished this piece and combined a new richness of tone in all voice parts with a beautiful blend in the quieter opening section.
Come, Holy Ghost by Jonathan Harvey written in 1984 for the Southern Cathedrals Festival and premiered by Winchester Cathedral Choir (conducted by Martin Neary who championed Harvey’s music during his time in Winchester), was a groundbreaking piece which brought the soundworld of aleatoric music into the English choral scene for probably the first time. The composer presents the singers with a number of musical fragments which they must sing in an order of their own choosing and at their own pace. This wash of sound provides a dreamlike accompaniment to the ancient hymn. No two performances of this piece will ever be the same and it needs each member of the choir to sustain their ‘individual’ part and the soloists to soar above the texture, ignite the ‘celestial fire’ and reach the serene heights that the composer envisaged.
Two further unaccompanied pieces, Salutatio Angelica by Philip Moore and Into thy Hands by Jonathan Dove, written for the Edington Festival and Salisbury Cathedral Choir respectively, were expressively sung and although there were some moments of poor ensemble in the Philip Moore as the choir tired, the Jonathan Dove was a very moving performance in which the silences were as important as the notes.
The concert closed with a recent commission from Philip Moore for Westminster Abbey in 2005 in celebration of the 1000th anniversary of the birth of Saint Edward, King and Confessor and Founder of Westminster Abbey. It sets words by the then Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion: The King and the Robin. This beautiful piece with its touching dialogue between the King and the Robin and a wonderfully characterised organ part with flashes of bird song provided a very satisfying conclusion to a well crafted programme by Daniel Cook and The Farrant Singers. Ian Wicks
Daniel Cook plays the organ of Salisbury Cathedral
To read a review of this CD by Stephen D. Smith follow this link: http://www.organrecitals.com/p/cd-alcock.html
Superb Society's ambitious work
There is a venturesome spirit within the Grange Choral Society; one that is prepared to try something different, and
in Saturday's inspired concert they conveyed to stunning effect the glories of voice, brass percussion and organ under Daniel Cook's baton.
Concluding with John Rutter's Gloria the entire ensemble plus the soaring soprano soloist Katharine Hawnt ensured this powerful paean drew a performance to match the ambitious scoring.
Parry's anthem I Was Glad, accompanied by organ, had that extra edge with supporting brass ensemble, the Grange singers revelling in the challenge.
Bruckner's motets are gems of choral excellence and here the Grange performed six . . . some a cappella and others with brass. If the highest degree of polish was occasionally missing these were still distinguished accounts.
Organist Ian Wicks joined forces with the brass ensemble in an arrangement of Gigout's only well known work; the Grand Choeur Dialogue and quiet a spectacle it was, also in solo he shook the Priory's foundations with Walton's magnificent Crown Imperial.
Elgar's Great is the Lord
with bass soloist Richard Hooper and organ accompaniment was impressive but surpassed by Parry's Hear My Words, Ye People with the panoply of brass, chorus and both soloists in stirring form. A superb concert and hopefully something similar may follow. Mike Marsh
(edited)
Elgar's Dream of Gerontius
Grange Choral Society celebrates 50th anniversary
What better time than the 50th anniversary to pause and appreciate the significant contribution it has made, and continues to make, to the cultural life of the area.
In an age when British choral heritage - particularly in the Christian context - is less-widely valued or supported than it once was, the choir's broad repertoire and continuing membership of around 150 voices, along with the high musical standards it maintains together represent a major achievement. That should be recognised, valued and celebrated.
(Of the soloists) it was a significant fact that all three had sung in the Grange's last performance of the work in 2006. They are all performers of great presence and distinction.
Under the baton of Daniel Cook the choir responded well to the wide variety of timbre and mood demanded by Elgar's music. In addition to the full choir parts his score also often makes use of a semi-chorus . . . That role was filled by the Salisbury-based Farrant Singers, another of Daniel's choirs . .. Mention must also be made of the Grange Orchestra augmented to almost 50 players . . . they stamped their mark on the performance right from the start of the sombre prelude.
This concert was a memorable occasion for the society to look back and mark the achievements of the last 50 years. But, with the magnificent venue of Christchurch Priory, and interesting programmes already planned for the next two years . . . it also has every reason to look forward confidently to the future. D.B. (edited quote published in The New Milton Advertiser)
Verdi Requiem
Beautiful requiem - Not so much an opera, more a requiem; that seemed to be the aim of Daniel Cook, musical director of the Grange Choral Society . . .
If that was the objective, then the whole ensemble achieved that with remarkable unanimity. In effect this was the most beautiful account of (the) Verdi Requiem that I have heard.
Take, for example, the Offertorio in which the melting voices of the four soloists - Claire Rutter, Susan Mackenzie-Park, David Rendall and Stephen Gadd - melded in sacred harmony. The necessity for top-rate soloists paid off time and again where their strength of projection over a sumptuous orchestra was undiminished.
. . . To be sure there was no want of drama and the dynamic range was impressively controlled. The Grange Orchestra responded with beauty of phrasing, thundering force and facility of delivery.
The choir were on impeccable form and the expansive pace enabled that sensitivity to the words, such as the haunting Lacrimosa, space to blossom. Mike Marsh (edited quote)
. . . it can truly be said that recently appointed musical director Daniel Cook has stamped his authority on the choral society scene . . . his innate musicianship standing him in good stead and enabling him to produce a stunning performance of one of the most dramatic works in the choral repertoire.
. . . It was clear from the beautifully subdued and atmospheric opening pages of the Requiem and vigorous double fugue of the Kyrie that the choir was on top form. The well-known Dies Irae broke in with a staggering impact that no amount of listening to recordings of this music could have prepared one for! It is a very long time since music of such intensity and force has been heard at a Grange concert. Nor did the choir's obvious total commitment to the music falter at any point . . . the singers gave everything Daniel Cook asked of them.
The Grange Orchestra - for this occasion heavy with extra brass and percussion - likewise gave of their all in presenting Verdi's colourful and taxing, and at times frankly terrifying, score.
. . . This reviewer came to this work with some disposition against both the imposition of such an operatic musical style on a sacred text, and the theology implicit in the text itself. The fact that he nearly had the courage to rise to his feet to instigate a standing ovation says everything about the quality of the performance! For Daniel Cook to achieve such a stunning result within a year of becoming the society's musical director is an undoubted triumph: it can only leave everyone looking to future Grange concerts with excited anticipation.
(edited quote)
Missa Ego flos campi
Early choral music from Spain and Latin America
Despite the damp British summer weather, The Farrant Singers whisked their audience to warmer climes with a concert of Spanish-influenced choral music. It had all the oft-quoted essentials for a good story; touches of religion, royalty, romance and an element of mystery. Religion and Royalty? This was a programme of sacred music including works from the Spanish 16th Century composer Francisco Guerrero, who was well-respected in the court of King Philip II of Spain. An element of romance, even sensuousness, came with Guerrero’s setting in Latin of words from the Song of Songs. “I sat down under the shadow of him I desire and his fruit was sweet to my taste.”
If that wasn’t enough, we crossed to Mexico where sacred choral music was alive and well in the 17th century; Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla emigrated from Spain to be musical director for Puebla Cathedral Choir for nearly 40 years. We heard his lengthy Missa Ego Flos Campi. For the singers this was a demanding sing with some tricky syncopated rhythms and striking antiphonal effects; it’s a pity the choir didn’t separate to give the audience the full effect. Nonetheless, this was indeed a sonorous wash of unaccompanied singing in the resonant acoustic of St Martin’s, from a well-blended choir under the graceful direction of Daniel Cook who allowed the music to breathe, with sensible tempos and sensitive phrasing.
A very pleasant spicing of this musical paella came from the excellent Ancora Duo (flautist Anne Allen and guitarist Sarah Freestone) who played more modern works from Piazzolla and Pujol, both from Argentina. The combination of irregular rhythms, hint of a tango, and sheer Latin American colour and drive provided a very pleasant contrast to the sublime content of the rest of the concert.
And the mystery element in this concert? Whether the Flamenco dancer depicted in a piece played by the duo was male or female. A question left unresolved as we left in the pouring English rain.
Stuart Robinson
The King and the Robin
The Farrant Singers, reinvigorated with some new members, sang an ambitious programme of English music that wove spells that not even a few stray fireworks could puncture.
Philip Moore, for 25 years Organist and Master of the Choristers at York Minster, is constantly being commissioned to write new music and with music of this quality and individuality it is not hard to see why. The Farrant Singers began with Lo! God is here, a piece written for the tercentenary of St Paul’s Cathedral. Immediately it was apparent that here was a choir on resurgent top form with well defined balance and flexibilty of tone to the fore. The interplay between the plainsong soprano solo and hymn was beautifully poised.
The Three Prayers of Dietrich Bonhoeffer are a masterpiece of unaccompanied choral writing. Conductor Daniel Cook directed the choir with calm assurance and a deep awareness of choral colour and musical phrasing. Under his guidance the choir brought an anguished tenderness and a poignancy to these pieces that was very touching.
The first half closed with a polished performance of Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb. Britten sets sections of Christopher Smart’s poem "Jubilate Agno". The eighteenth century poet was in an asylum for the insane when he wrote it, and it is not difficult to see his madness in the poem (although it would have been good to have the text in our programme). It is reported that his insanity led him to sudden compulsions to pray in public, at any time or place. So although he writes about his cat Jeffrey and a mouse praising God just through their very nature it is the religious character of the work that is the most striking. The music of the ten short sections brings Britten’s genius into sharp focus as each vignette in the poem is given a unique treatment. The choir brought beauty to the lilting Hallelujahs and more than enough vigour to the tricky rhythmic sections.
The concert was notable for the fourteen members of the#choir who were given solo opportunities including a cameo from the conductor. The solos Britten writes here are amongst the finest in the repertory. Organist Timothy Hone who played two solos, a reflective Psalm Prelude by Howells and the ecstatic Alleluyas by Simon Preston, provided excellent support to the choir throughout the evening with clear articulation and a carefully judged palette of musical colour.
Viri Galilaei by Patrick Gowers is a dramatic depiction of the Ascension of Jesus to heaven. Utilising the two organs in St Martin’s Church and divided choral forces it opens with a shower of shimmering stars played on the chamber organ by Andrej Kousnetzov, the Cathedral Organ Scholar, accompanied by ethereal Alleluias from the choir. This texture leads to a triumphant hymn in which the double choir texture swirls in a most engaging style with the sure support of the main organ providing a rumbustuous accompaniment. Eventually the dense texture vanishes into nothing as Christ disappears from view. The choir relished this piece and combined a new richness of tone in all voice parts with a beautiful blend in the quieter opening section.
Come, Holy Ghost by Jonathan Harvey written in 1984 for the Southern Cathedrals Festival and premiered by Winchester Cathedral Choir (conducted by Martin Neary who championed Harvey’s music during his time in Winchester), was a groundbreaking piece which brought the soundworld of aleatoric music into the English choral scene for probably the first time. The composer presents the singers with a number of musical fragments which they must sing in an order of their own choosing and at their own pace. This wash of sound provides a dreamlike accompaniment to the ancient hymn. No two performances of this piece will ever be the same and it needs each member of the choir to sustain their ‘individual’ part and the soloists to soar above the texture, ignite the ‘celestial fire’ and reach the serene heights that the composer envisaged.
Two further unaccompanied pieces, Salutatio Angelica by Philip Moore and Into thy Hands by Jonathan Dove, written for the Edington Festival and Salisbury Cathedral Choir respectively, were expressively sung and although there were some moments of poor ensemble in the Philip Moore as the choir tired, the Jonathan Dove was a very moving performance in which the silences were as important as the notes.
The concert closed with a recent commission from Philip Moore for Westminster Abbey in 2005 in celebration of the 1000th anniversary of the birth of Saint Edward, King and Confessor and Founder of Westminster Abbey. It sets words by the then Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion: The King and the Robin. This beautiful piece with its touching dialogue between the King and the Robin and a wonderfully characterised organ part with flashes of bird song provided a very satisfying conclusion to a well crafted programme by Daniel Cook and The Farrant Singers. Ian Wicks
