Summer Concert 2018
Fri. 25th
May 2018 at
7.30pm
Craigiebuckler
Parish
Church by
Alan Cooper
JANE MURRAY: Musical
Director, Pianist and Conductor
ANTHONY MOFFAT: Violin, Guest Soloist
ERIKA FAIRHEAD: Piano Accompanist
ANDREW FAIRHEAD: Piano in final piece
Aberdeen Orpheus
Choir under their delightfully encouraging conductor
Jane Murray were in finer voice than ever for their
Annual May Concert. A selection of particularly
attractive choral music, exuberantly well performed drew
a capacity audience to Craigiebuckler Church on Friday
evening. The Choir frequently invite a special guest
performer to their Summer Concert. This year they had
the renowned violinist Anthony Moffat, currently Leader
of the Scottish Opera Orchestra. Jane told us that he
had come to last year’s concert when the guest soloist
was guitarist Ian Watt. Anthony enjoyed last year’s
performance so much that he offered to become this
year’s soloist and Jane immediately accepted his
generous offer. He gave us four solo items as well as
taking part in no fewer than five of the choral items
adding extra brilliance to the fine singing.
The concert
opened with the choir singing the Magnificat in C by the
Italian baroque composer Antonio Caldara. I was
immediately captured by the full strength of the choral
sound and by the clarity of the diction. The Latin texts
came through with remarkable distinctness. The second
section was originally written for an alto soloist but
on Friday this was the first solo contribution to the
concert from violinist Anthony Moffat. It was absolutely
marvellous, made even more fascinating when Jane Murray
told us that the violin on which Moffat was performing
had been made more than three hundred years ago when the
composer Caldara was just twenty-five years old.
The precision
entries in the third section and the transparent
delivery of the counterpoint were praiseworthy and in
the final Allegro the sheer boldness of the singing
carried everything before it.
The next choral
section contained three songs with a spiritual
background. ‘Keep Your Lamps!’ had just the right
thrusting vigour, a real punch delivered by the rhythm
of the singing. The more gentle but enthusiastic
American hymn, Amazing Grace had extra luxuriance
delivered by Anthony Moffat’s violin ornamentation in
the second last verse. The final piece in this section
was ‘Joshua fit the Battle of Jericho’ sung with a
bright faced enthusiasm that fully captured the
heartfelt spirit of the words.
‘The Ground’
from ‘Sunrise Mass’ by the contemporary Norwegian
composer Ola Gjeilo whose music was also heard in last
year’s concert was dedicated to the memory of a stalwart
member of the Orpheus Choir who sadly passed away in
April. Right to the end, he attended choir rehearsals
and this piece was one of the last he rehearsed. The
final words, ‘Dona Nobis Pacem’ were, I thought,
particularly appropriate.
The choir went
on to give a rich and joyful performance of ‘How Lovely
is Thy Dwelling-place’ the fourth movement of the German
Requiem by Brahms, but here, sung in English.
‘The Windlass
Ply’ from the Dramatic Cantata, ‘On Shore and Sea’ by
Sir Arthur Sullivan was composed around the time that
the composer was about to join forces with W. S. Gilbert
but the words for this piece were by one Tom Taylor.
There was fine lusty singing from the male chorus. The
female chorus came in separately at first just as was
often the case in the later Savoy Operas. Once again
Anthony Moffat was on board to help the choir swing the
windlass along with his violin.
So far, all the
choral items were supported with real class by piano
accompanist Erika Fairhead but the next piece, an eight
part Madrigal entitled ‘Lay a Garland’ was sung a
capella by the choir. They managed to project the music
with admirable clarity and transparency.
‘Ballad to the
Moon’ by the American composer Daniel Elder reminded me
both in its text and its harmonies of ‘Sure on this
Shining Night’ by Morten Lauridsen, a favourite of mine,
so no complaints here and I enjoyed the choral version
of ‘Song to the Moon’ from the opera Rusalka by Dvořák.
For the Southern
American folk hymn, ‘The Wayfaring Stranger’ Jane had
encouraged the choir to adopt the singing style of the
American folksinger Joan Baez but most of them had never
heard of her. All the same, with Anthony Moffat adding
his encouragement on violin I thought they did rather
well.
Last year the
choir also sang a piece by Carole King and this year
their choice was ‘I Feel the Earth Move’ and ‘On
Broadway’ they seemed to be really enjoying this music.
The final choral
piece supported by Anthony Moffat and Andrew Fairhead on
piano, hitherto he was the page turner, was ‘Homeward
Bound’ by Marta Keen. It had a particularly delightful
melody sung enticingly to begin with by the male voices.
The female voices came in with a hummed backing until
finally the whole chorus came in with the words and it
made a magnificent conclusion to the concert.
What about our
marvellous guest soloist Anthony Moffat though. His four
offerings covered almost every style of solo violin
playing. He began with Fritz Kreisler’s ‘Prelude and
Allegro in the style of Pugnani’. The Prelude was
definitely “con brio” that is to say full of verve and
ebullience and the Allegro was “con fuoco” absolutely on
fire. ‘It ain’t necessarily so’ from Gershwin’s ‘Porgy
and Bess’ was nice and jazzy while the ‘Theme from
Schindler’s List’ was Hollywood heartfelt romanticism at
its best.
The ‘Prelude
from Solo Partita No. 3 in E Major’ by J. S. Bach was
serious violin music also at its finest. Moffat captured
both the echo effects of loud and soft along with the
startling different violin voices sounding at the same
time. It is always amazing to realise that these voices
are all coming from just one instrument.
‘Chinese Rhythm’
by Cyril and Clifford Hellier (Cyril was a violinist and
Clifford a pianist) reminded me of my radio days before
we had television in Aberdeen. I thought of Workers
Playtime. Would the Helliers have played this piece on
the radio – or would it have been Yehudi Menuhin or
perhaps more likely Max Jaffa? Happy days!
Anthony Moffat’s
final solo offering was ‘Fascination’ by Fermo Dante
Marchetti. I saw moonstruck smiles and at the end sighs
of satisfaction from many in the audience during this
piece.
This year’s
Summer Concert radiated sheer enthusiasm from all the
performers. Lovely Summer weather certainly helped and
it was great to hear music that was new to me along with
lifetime favourites. Thanks to everybody, Jane Murray,
Anthony Moffat, the Fairheads and first and foremost the
Aberdeen Orpheus Choir. |