Choral triumph with Delius a fine opener; Review.TITLE: Huddersfield Choral Society
Huddersfield Choral Society is an internationally famous choir based in the town of Huddersfield in the English county of West Yorkshire. It was founded in 1836 and is recognised as one of Britain's leading choirs. and BBC Philharmonic The BBC Philharmonic is a professional broadcasting symphony orchestra based in Manchester, England. It is one of five orchestras maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation. Orchestra VENUE: Huddersfield Town Hall REVIEW: William Marshall William Marshall is a name shared by several people:
The Huddersfield Choral Society, joined by four first class soloists, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, and conducted Martyn Brabbins Martyn Brabbins is a conductor. He studied at Goldsmiths College, London University, then with Ilya Musin at the Leningrad Conservatory. He first came to international attention when he was awarded first prize at the Leeds Conducting Competition in 1988. , made a good if not completely compelling case for Delius's A Mass of Life, completed in 1905, to be restored to a central place in the repertoire. The text, drawn from Nietzsche's Also sprach Zarathustra, is an example of the fin-de-siecle philosophising that fired the intellectual and artistic ambitions of many contemporary composers. In some ways the Mass of Life is redolent red·o·lent adj. 1. Having or emitting fragrance; aromatic. 2. Suggestive; reminiscent: a campaign redolent of machine politics. of Vaughan Williams's Sea Symphony, which took its equally portentous por·ten·tous adj. 1. Of the nature of or constituting a portent; foreboding: "The present aspect of society is portentous of great change" Edward Bellamy. 2. text from works by Walt Whitman. For most of the Huddersfield Town Hall audience at the society's first concert of the season, however, the Nietzschean content of The Mass of Life would have been little more than mood setting, although the principal soloist, baritone Roderick Williams, brought his exceptional musical intelligence to bear in order to wring some meaningful exegesis exegesis Scholarly interpretation of religious texts, using linguistic, historical, and other methods. In Judaism and Christianity, it has been used extensively in the study of the Bible. Textual criticism tries to establish the accuracy of biblical texts. from the text. The performance, then, would stand or fall on its pure musical qualities and there were undoubtedly some moments of exceptional beauty, fully realised by choir and orchestra. At the beginning of the second half, Martyn Brabbins was probably justified in his unusual action of halting the performance after a few bars and turning in rebuke to an audience that he felt was not yet settled, for he was about to conduct a section of exquisite serenity, with sublime horn calls over gently sustained strings. The work as a whole made considerable demands on the choral singers, on their control and their tone rather than powers of projection, but they held their own at the exciting finale when Delius finally allowed sheer exuberance to burst forth. CAPTION(S): * EXCEPTIONAL: Huddersfield Choral Society and, below, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, performing Frederick Delius's A Mass of Life at Huddersfield Town Hall (PW301009Econcert-07 and 05) |
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