United Kingdom 2025 Three Choirs Competition [1] – Smyth, Dvořák, Mathias: Eleanor Dennis (soprano), James Oxley (tenor), Malachy Body (baritone), Three Choirs Competition Refrain, Hereford Cathedral Choristers, Philharmonia Orchestra / Geraint Bowen (conductor). Hereford Cathedral, 26.7.2025. (JQ)
Dame Ethel Smyth – Overture to The Wreckers
Dvořák – Te Deum, Op 103
William Mathias – This Worlde’s Joie, Op 67
For the primary main night live performance of the 2025 Competition, Geraint Bowen put collectively a sexy and vibrant programme.
Proceedings opened with music by Dame Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) within the form of the overture to her three-act Opera, The Wreckers (1902-04). The opera loved some preliminary success – it was, for instance, the primary opera by a feminine composer to be staged at New York’s Metropolitan Opera – however after the Second World Struggle it fell into full neglect till it was revived on the 1994 BBC Proms to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the composer’s dying. That efficiency, performed by Odaline de la Martinez, was subsequently issued on CD; it’s nonetheless obtainable and is price investigating (Retrospect Opera RO004). I learn within the booklet accompanying the recording that lately there have been one or two performances of the opera within the wake of that Promenade; nevertheless, you usually tend to encounter the overture as a standalone live performance merchandise, as was the case tonight. The overture is an efficient and entertaining piece. I admired the energetic strategy of Bowen and the Philharmonia to a number of sections of the piece however what significantly caught in my thoughts was the heat with which the overture’s lyrical ‘large tune’ – an excellent tune – was delivered. This was a robust begin to the night.
Subsequent, we heard Dvořák’s setting of the Te Deum. This was written in 1892, simply because the composer was about to set off for his interval of dwelling and dealing within the USA; certainly, the premiere was given, below the composer’s baton, in Carnegie Corridor, New York. It’s fairly a compact setting of the traditional Latin hymn, lasting about twenty minutes. In his programme notice, Richard Bratby summed it up effectively as ‘an exuberant choral symphony in 4 linked actions’. It’s price including, I believe, that the piece is a quintessential instance of Dvořák’s music, each when it comes to the melodic invention and the harmonic language. Its efficiency actually obtained off to an exuberant begin, although within the resonant acoustic the sound of the total forces of the Competition Refrain and the Philharmonia was considerably congested, albeit stirring. The efficiency actually got here into its personal within the calmer, extra lyrical stretches of the work. In these episodes the soloists, Eleanor Dennis and Malachy Body made wonderful contributions, and Geraint Bowen formed the music with correct affection. I additionally appreciated the neat, well-articulated singing and taking part in within the ‘Aeterna fac’ part, which is, in impact, the work’s scherzo. Richard Bratby asserted that the tip of the work ought to ‘certainly set the angels themselves dancing for sheer pleasure’. Fairly whether or not there was dancing in Heaven on this event I don’t know, however Bowen, his singers and gamers positively introduced Dvořák’s Te Deum to a rousing, jubilant conclusion.
William Mathias (1934-1992) wrote his cantata This Worlde’s Joie for the 1971 Fishguard Competition however the premiere, which the composer performed, was delayed till 1974. I believe I’m proper in saying that the composer wrote the three solo components particularly for 3 voices, certainly one of which was the distinguished Welsh tenor, Kenneth Bowen (the others have been soprano Janet Worth and baritone Michael Rippon). It is extremely acceptable, subsequently, that Geraint Bowen ought to have chosen the work for this Three Choirs Competition live performance since his father was so recognized with it. In 1976, the three singers for whom Mathias conceived the solo roles made a recording of the cantata, performed by Sir David Willcocks, for EMI; it has been reissued by Lyrita (assessment right here). I keep in mind shopping for the recording on LP when it first got here out and later, I upgraded to the Lyrita CD. With one latest exception, of which extra in a second, I fairly suspect that This Worlde’s Joie has not obtained too many performances through the years however, the truth is, I attended one in April 1978 after I was nonetheless dwelling in Yorkshire. On that event the work was sung by the Bradford Competition Choral Society, which is without doubt one of the oldest established choral societies within the UK; they have been based as way back as 1856. Their very enterprising programme on that event in 1978 additionally included one other latest work, John Rutter’s The Falcon (1969) and I do not forget that each Mathias and Rutter have been current. Willcocks, who performed the BFCS between 1956 and 1974, was invited again for this live performance and he introduced with him the three aforementioned soloists. The BCFS archivist kindly despatched me a replica of the programme not too long ago and after I revisited it, I used to be reminded that BBC Radio 3 broadcast the live performance stay. I additionally famous that the nameless programme notice included the next feedback: ‘This Worlde’s Joie is supposed to be loved by each listeners and performers … It’s a work which makes no separation between secular and sacred. It’s, all through, an Act of Celebration’. I used to be delighted to have the chance to expertise the work in live performance once more.
I mentioned that there was had been no less than one latest efficiency of This Worlde’s Joie. I found that in March 2024, Geraint Bowen performed a efficiency with the Hereford Choral Society through which the three soloists we heard tonight have been concerned. I’m wondering if the efficiency commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of the work’s premiere; whether or not or not that was the case, it was pragmatic of Bowen to steer a efficiency some fifteen months previous to tonight’s. I think about {that a} good variety of Hereford Choral Society members are concerned on this 12 months’s Competition Refrain; the preparatory work in early 2024 can have paid dividends, as will the expertise of getting carried out this generally tough music within the cathedral’s beneficiant acoustic. To be sincere, upfront of this efficiency I used to be involved that the resonant acoustic may blunt the impression of music that’s usually rhythmically sharp-edged, however such was not the case. Moreover, within the loud passages Mathias’s vibrant orchestration emerged extra clearly than was the case in tutti passages within the Dvořák. Mathias didn’t stint himself when it got here to orchestrating the cantata; he wrote for a reasonably full complement of woodwind and brass in addition to a big contingent of percussionists – I counted 5 gamers plus a timpanist. Pleasingly, although, the orchestra virtually by no means overpowered the singers; that’s no imply feat on this acoustic.
The libretto for This Worlde’s Joie, compiled by Mathias himself, I consider, is an anthology of British sacred and secular texts from the medieval and Tudor durations; the work is sung in English. The rating is split into 4 components; each addresses a season of the 12 months, beginning with Spring and progressing in chronological order. Moreover, every season corresponds to a stage in what I suppose would these days be described as one’s ‘life journey’(!) So, we have now Spring (Youth); Summer time (Maturity); Autumn (Decline); and Winter (Demise); then the work comes full circle on the finish ‘resulting in a transfigured Spring and re-birth’. Three soloists are concerned along with SATB refrain and a kids’s choir; it’s not till the very of the work, although, that every one the forces are introduced collectively. I’ve learn a lot of feedback through the years that the work calls to thoughts Britten’s Spring Symphony (1949); I agree with that, however it’s price noting that in his booklet notice accompanying the Willcocks recording Geraint Lewis additionally references Tippett’s The Midsummer Marriage (1955).
Tonight’s efficiency was wonderful: I assumed the Competition Refrain rose to the event with singing which was strong when required but in addition delicate in locations. Above all, they sang with enthusiasm and dedication. My seat was in direction of the rear of the nave however although I didn’t comply with the textual content line by line the choir’s readability of diction enabled me to discern the phrases. That was true additionally of the boy and lady choristers of Hereford Cathedral. The kids’s choir has a number of necessary interventions within the work – simply certainly one of a number of situations of indebtedness to Britten – and these younger singers impressed constantly. They sang clearly and confidently with a recent, engaging timbre.
The soloists all have necessary contributions to make. James Oxley supplied readability and rhythmic agility. In his necessary solo close to the beginning of Half III (‘The opposite day/I hear a maid/Proper piteously complain’) the plangency of his voice was effectively suited to the melancholy music. Nevertheless, the tonal high quality of his voice has change into considerably slim; I might have appreciated to expertise a extra open-throated ring and, with it, a wider vary of expression. I don’t assume I’ve heard baritone Malachy Body earlier than, he is an effective singer, who supplied agency tone and readability of diction. The baritone has a significant solo on the finish of Half II (‘In a time of a Summer time’s day’). Right here, the soloist depicts a manly hunter who experiences, to his value, the hazards of the chase. I assumed Body didn’t actually put the solo throughout with ample chew, although in equity Mathias doesn’t make it simple for his soloist, requiring him to articulate quite a lot of phrases and notes at tempo in opposition to a busy orchestral background. I additionally felt that Body was a bit too severe in his duet with the soprano soloist in Half I (‘I pray you, come and kiss me’). Then again, he was very effectively suited to the darkish music of ‘Winter wakeneth all my care’ at the beginning of Half IV; right here, he obtained the depth excellent. I very a lot loved Eleanor Dennis’s contributions. Within the duet ‘I pray you, come and kiss me’ she entered proper into the spirit of the phrases and music, not simply in the way in which she sang, but in addition by means of facial expressions; she conveyed mischief and coyness in a trend which the viewers evidently loved. I additionally discovered a lot to admire within the sensitivity and expressiveness that she dropped at melancholy solos later within the work (‘Ah, what’s love?’ in Half II, and ‘I beloved a childe of this nation’ in Half III).
I assumed Geraint Bowen performed the efficiency very effectively certainly. On this fifty-minute rating Mathias set numerous texts – some twenty, if I’ve counted appropriately; every of those texts is ready to totally different music and every such setting is sort of quick. Due to this fact, it have to be a problem to convey the whole lot collectively right into a coherent complete. Bowen did so convincingly. He obtained wonderful, incisive taking part in from the Philharmonia, who introduced the vivid and vibrant orchestration vividly to life. He supported his soloists effectively and inspired his choirs to offer of their finest. On the finish of the work, Mathias unites all of the forces for the one time within the rating for a rousing setting of ‘Adam lay i-bounden’. Bowen inspired all of the performers to make these closing pages a convincing celebration of re-birth. The way in which this ending was achieved gave us a last reminder of the accuracy of that remark all these years in the past within the Bradford programme notice that This Worlde’s Joie is, above all, ‘an Act of Celebration’. This was a efficiency through which Geraint Bowen and the Three Choirs Competition did William Mathias proud.
John Quinn
Featured Picture: Geraint Bowen conducts the Three Choirs Competition Refrain, Philharmonia Orchestra, tenor James Oxley, soprano Eleanor Dennis and baritone Malachy Body © Dale Hodgetts
