Britten Sinfonia, Sinfonia Smith Sq. and the Choir of Merton Faculty, Oxford, unite for an exhilarating and exhilarating live performance concluding with Olivier Messiaen’s Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum.

Messiaen: Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum – Britten Sinfonia, Sinfonia Smith Sq., Nicholas Daniel – St George’s Cathedral, Southwark (Picture: Britten Sinfonia)

Stravinsky: Symphonies of wind devices; Poulenc: Timor et tremor, Vinea mea electa, Tristis est anima mea; Duruflé: Ubi caritas et amor; Stravinsky: Mass; Messiaen: Vocalise-etude, O sacrum convivium, Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum. Choir of Merton Faculty, Oxford, cond. Benjamin Nicholas; Britten Sinfonia, Sinfonia Smith Sq., cond. Nicholas Daniel; St George’s Roman Catholic Cathedral, Southwark, London
Reviewed by Tony Cooper, 30 April 2025

This live performance marked Nicholas Daniel’s last efficiency with the Britten Sinfonia as principal oboist, a submit he has held since being one of many founding members of the orchestra in 1992. 

I believe it’s honest to say that this live performance that includes a efficiency of Olivier Messiaen’s monumental work Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum carried out by the Britten Sinfonia, and Sinfonia Smith Sq. with music by Poulenc, Duruflé and Stravinsky with the Choir of Merton Faculty, Oxford, might nicely be described as a ‘once-in-a-decade’ musical expertise.  

For certain, an incredible piece, Et exspecto isn’t carried out these days due to the sheer scale of the musical forces required equivalent to the large sections of wind and brass (no strings) wanted alongside a unprecedented vary of percussion and ‘knocking’ devices comprising three units of cowbells, three tam-tams and 6 tuned gongs had been a part of the {hardware} in addition to a set of tubular bells all safely within the robust and skilful fingers of half-a-dozen percussionists aka the ‘Heavy Metallic Boys’.  

Commissioned by the French Minister of Cultural Affairs, André Malraux, to honour the Fallen of the First and Second World Wars, Messiaen conceived the work to be carried out in giant areas equivalent to church buildings and cathedrals and, certainly, in open-air performances. He discovered inspiration in writing the piece by the countryside of the Hautes-Alpes (a division within the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur area of south-eastern France) and by the imposing photographs of Gothic and Romanesque church buildings. 

‘I really feel that Et exspecto presents a uncommon alternative for an unforgettable musical journey for viewers and performers alike,’ enthused Nicholas Daniel, who performed the work whereas marking his last efficiency with the Britten Sinfonia as principal oboist, a submit he has held since being one of many founding members of the orchestra in 1992. 

He additional added: ‘The distinctive soundscape is immense and highly effective and bringing Et exspecto to life within the beautiful environment of Augustus Pugin’s St George’s Cathedral, Southwark, fantastically designed within the Gothic fashion, is a lifetime’s ambition for me. I’m tremendously excited to share this expertise with a number of the nice musicians within the UK together with the distinctive and gifted younger artists of Sinfonia Smith Sq..’ 

Opening the live performance fell to Stravinsky’s ritualistic Symphonies d’devices à vent (Symphonies of wind devices) devoted to the reminiscence of Debussy who died in 1918. A one-movement, nine-minute work courting from 1920, the première befell in London on 10 June 1921 performed by Serge Koussevitzky. A satisfying and entertaining work all around the woodwind and brass of Britten Sinfonia and Sinfonia Smith Sq. had been discovered to be on tremendously good kind. 

The night’s programme additionally introduced collectively music exploring themes of reflection, loss and hope that includes the Choir of Merton Faculty, Oxford, performed by Benjamin Nicholas, a musician steeped within the English choral custom as he was a long-serving member of Norwich Cathedral Choir the place his father, Michael Nicholas, held the submit of Grasp of Music for an amazing a few years. Choir director of Merton since 2008, Mr Nicholas (who’s additionally principal conductor of the Oxford Bach Choir) grew to become the primary full-time organist and director of music at Merton in 2012.  

No doubt, Merton’s efficiency of Poulenc’s Quatre motets pour un temps de pénitence (4 penitential motets) written in 1938-39 to Latin texts proved a spotlight of the programme total. Regrettably, solely three of the items had been carried out. 

Nonetheless, the textual content for the primary motet, Timor et tremor (Nice worry and trembling) combines verses from psalms 54 and 30 which Orlando de Lassus additionally set as a motet. The opposite two had been based mostly on responsories for Holy Week: Vinea mea electa (Vine that I beloved as my very own), a responsory for the matins on Good Friday and Tristis est anima mea (Unhappy is my soul and sorrowful), the second responsory of the Tenebrae service of Maundy Thursday depicting Christ’s Agony within the Backyard of Gethsemane proved a devotional, considerate and delicate piece,  

No doubt, Merton excelled of their efficiency tightly managed by Benjamin Nicholas that was merely inspiring and joyous to listen to within the elegant environment of Pugin’s Gothic masterpiece whereas the choir dug deep and located gravitas and understanding in delivering a superb account of Duruflé’s Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est (The place true charity and love dwell, God himself is there) written in 1960. 

Of solely two minutes in size, the motet’s based mostly on an historical chant of the identical title that will have originated with the so-called Gallican ceremony, the liturgical custom used within the church buildings of Gaul earlier than Gregorian chant was applied by the Frankish sovereign, Pepin the Quick, in the course of the eighth century.  

Closing the primary half of the programme, Stravinsky was again on the invoice and so had been, too, Merton (full on!) delivering a shiny and clever studying of the Mass, a setting of the Latin Mass that Stravinsky wrote between 1944 and 1945, scored for an ensemble of wind devices comprising two oboes, English horn (cor anglais), two bassoons, two trumpets and three trombones.  

Representing considered one of solely a handful of extant items by Stravinsky that was not commissioned, Robert Craft, who labored carefully with the composer, is quoted as saying that he wrote it out of a ‘religious necessity’. Carried out by the ‘man-of-the second’, Nicholas Daniel, who achieved a great stability between the choral and instrumental forces, the work discovered nice favour with the viewers in what proved a totally pleasing efficiency not least by Stravinsky’s thrilling writing for the ‘Sanctus’ which discovered brass, woodwind and the choral forces in combating temper absolutely concentrated delivering a riveting efficiency. 

Though Stravinsky deserted the Russian Orthodox Church in his teenagers he was reconnected to his religion by attending a service on the basilica of Saint Anthony of Padua within the mid-Twenties which impressed him to put in writing his first spiritual composition, Pater Noster, for an a cappella choir. How I’d dearly love to listen to Merton carry out it. 

Stravinsky: Mass – Choir of Merton Faculty, Britten Sinfonia, Nicholas Daniel – St George’s Cathedral, Southwark (Picture: Britten Sinfonia)

The second half of this pleasant, fulfilling and considerate programme, nevertheless, featured the music of Olivier Messiaen opening with the charming three-minute piece, Vocalise-etude, written in 1935 when Messiaen was 27 which provided a stunning oboe half performed to exacting requirements by Nicholas Daniel. 

And shocking a packed nave, Merton reassembled behind the church in a semicircle format gathered carefully to their conductor, Benjamin Nicholas, to sing O sacrum convivium (O sacred banquet) wherein Christ is obtained, the memorial of his Ardour is renewed, the soul is stuffed with grace and a pledge of future glory is given to all of us. A brief, tender and really loving piece of simply 4 minutes, Merton’s rendition was delicate, delicate and contemplative inspiring my Christian beliefs. 

The ultimate work in a large and assorted programme fell to Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum whose title punctuates the top of the fourth-century Nicene Creed ‘And I await the resurrection of the useless’ premièred in a non-public efficiency on 7 Could 1965 within the grand and imposing Gothic setting of La Sainte-Chapelle, Paris, graced by President Charles de Gaulle and the good and the great! The work’s first public efficiency, nevertheless, befell simply over a month later (20 June) within the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Chartres below the route of Serge Baudo. 

The opening bars replicate the despair and hope present in Psalm 130 (‘Out of the depths have I cried unto thee’) adopted by ‘Christ, risen from the useless, not dies’ thereby celebrating Christ’s victory over dying via the majesty and thriller of the Resurrection. The subsequent two actions ‘The time shall come when the useless hear the voice of the Son of God’ and ‘They shall rise once more in glory, with a brand new title’ foretell the resurrection of the useless whereas the ultimate motion ‘And I heard the sound of an amazing crowd’ (Revelations 19:6) portrays in a large explosion of orchestral sound (American huge band chief, Stan Kenton, would have actually authorised!) a grand imaginative and prescient of the reward and rejoicing of the resurrected in heaven. 

A religious Catholic, as, too, had been Poulenc and Duruflé, Messiaen was not solely a church organist (he spent 61 years as organist of Église de la Sainte Trinité in Paris) and lectured on the Conservatoire de Paris whereas being a eager ornithologist. His music, due to this fact, replicates ‘birdsong’ via a lot of his works as employed in El exspecto thus symbolizing the concord of the Pure Order with that of Divine Legislation equating to God the Father, the Supreme Being, the last word creator, ruler and preserver of all issues. 

Carried out in such a fantastic and lovely setting as St George’s Cathedral, Southwark, the rarity of this work, I really feel, will lengthy be remembered by members of the viewers and performers alike particularly to these vibrant and gifted college students of the Choir of Merton Faculty who performed Oxford College proud! 

Tony Cooper