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Cheltenham Festival 2008 (5):   Music by Leonin, Arvo Pärt, Veljo Tormis and St. Godric Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir/Paul Hillier Tewkesbury Abbey 10. 7.2008 (JQ)

Leonin/12^th century: Alleluia Nativitas
School of Notre Dame: Veni creator spiritus
Arvo Pärt: Seven Magnificat Antiphons
Anonymous English 14^th century: Angelus ad virginem
Arvo Pärt:  Magnificat
                Triodion
                Bogoróditse Djévo
Veljo Tormis: The Bishop and the Pagan
St. Godric: Three songs
Arvo Pärt: Nunc dimittis


This was an important concert, firstly because it brought to Gloucestershire for the first time a choir whose strong reputation preceded it thanks to CD recordings and secondly because it featured music by two contemporary composers who, to judge by his appreciative essays on each in the programme book, are important to Festival Director, Meurig Bowen. The intelligently devised programme included several items of medieval music and the juxtaposition of these with the music of Arvo Pärt (b. 1935) was as fascinating as it was apposite.

The choir was founded in 1981 by Tōnu Kaljuste, who remained its Chief Conductor until 2001 when he was succeeded by Paul Hillier, who in turn relinquished the post last year. The direction of the concert could not have been in more authoritative hands than Hillier’s on account of his long association with the music of Pärt. This association goes back to his days with the Hilliard Ensemble and has been a constant thread in his career over the last three decades and more.

I counted twenty-seven singers in the full complement of the choir but they began with much smaller forces. Six men sang the setting of Alleluia Nativitas, celebrating the birth of the Virgin Mary. This comes from a collection compiled in twelfth century Paris by the poet and cleric, Leoninus. The spare textures sounded quite modern. I was impressed with the solo tenor, who negotiated effortlessly the elaborate vocal line. A sextet of female singers then gave us a processional piece, Veni creator spiritus. This was a two-part setting and the texture was somewhat richer than in the previous piece. The Estonian ladies produced a lovely, pure sound. Both of these compositions called for expert intonation and unanimity of rhythm, suggesting that medieval singers must have been quite accomplished. The full choir assembled for the first Pärt offering, his Seven Magnificat Antiphons. These are the antiphons sung at Vespers in the week before Christmas, when each one precedes the singing of the Magnificat canticle on consecutive days. I don’t believe that Pärt designed his settings for liturgical use, for the antiphons, which are set in German rather than Latin, are presented, as they were here, as a continuous sequence. In an excellent performance several things stood out. These included the dark tone of the men in the second antiphon, ‘O Adonai’, with the top tenor line suitably prayerful. This is a gravely beautiful setting, ending with a repetition of the words ‘O Adonai’, with sonorously black bass notes at the root of the choral texture. The full choir is involved for the fourth antiphon, ‘O Schlüssel Davids’ (‘O key of David’), which Pärt makes into a particularly powerful prayer. This is followed by ‘O Morgenstern’ (‘O Dawn of the East’) and here the radiant opening chords ravish the ear. This setting, as befits its text, is a fine contrast with ‘O Schlüssel Davids’ and the superbly controlled choral singing was a delight to hear. The very last setting, ‘O Immanuel’ is the most anticipatory of all and Hillier and his responsive singers built it marvellously to a powerful climax. This was a quite wonderful performance of the Antiphons.

The Christmas theme continued with Angelus ad virginem, the melody of which is pretty well known through several carol settings. Like the other medieval pieces, this was sung – and very well – by a small consort; on this occasion eight singers were involved. Particularly praiseworthy was the excellent contribution of the clear-voiced solo tenor.

The first half ended with Pärt’s setting of the Magnificat. This dates from 1988, the year before the Antiphons. Pärt makes no attempt to set the text to illustrative music but he still provides a very beautiful setting. The clarity of balance that Hillier obtained enabled one to hear quite clearly how the composer uses small groups of singers at various times to vary the textures. The choir were completely on top of the music. Indeed, I noticed that at least two of them sang the whole piece entirely from memory. There are some who disparage Pärt’s music, claiming, for example, that his melodic material is limited. That may be true but I think that rather misses the point. He makes his impact in other ways and I found this Magnificat performance absolutely riveting.

After the interval we heard Triodion. This was written in 1998 to mark the 150^th anniversary of the foundation of Lancing College, Sussex. Pärt chose to set three prayers from the Orthodox liturgy, the last of which is a prayer to St. Nicholas, the patron saint of the school. The music is, as Meurig Bowen put it in his programme note, “characteristically solemn…[and] statically homophonic.” This might seem to give succour to those who criticise Pärt’s alleged lack of melodic variety but in fact the piece is extremely compelling. Each of the three sections starts quietly and builds to a big climax before concluding with a simple, even repetitive, hushed litany. These litanies are simple but they’re also effective in sustaining tension. The superb discipline and rich tonal palette of the choir ensured that this was a memorable performance.

We had been scheduled to hear next a piece by Perotin but in a late change to the programme Paul Hillier substituted Pärt’s Bogoróditse Djévo. This is another Orthodox text and it was commissioned in 1992 for the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols at Kings College, Cambridge. It’s only short but it’s cheerful and buoyant. I don’t know what the Perotin piece would have been like, of course, but I suspect the programme change was wise. If I have a criticism of the programme – and it’s only a slight one – it would be that we heard relatively little in the way of lively music. This little Pärt piece was a fine foil to Triodion.

Then the focus switched to the Estonian composer, Veljo Tormis (b. 1930). We heard his The Bishop and the Pagan, which Tormis composed in 1992 for The King’s Singers. The piece relates the story of the death of the British warrior and missionary, Bishop Henry, who was killed in 1158 by a Finnish farmer named Lalli. Tormis chose two very different texts to relate the tale and sets them simultaneously. As the piece will have been unfamiliar to most of the audience, I suspect, I think it might have been helpful if this had been made clear in the programme. As it was, the layout of the text in the booklet suggested that the work is divided into two consecutive sections and it took me several minutes to work out that this was not the case. The Latin plainchant, ‘The Sequence of St Henry’, is sung by part of the choir while the lower male voices sing the secular Finnish runic song, ‘Calling Dead Forefathers for Help’. The latter is much more earthy in nature than the Sequence and its music gradually becomes more vehement and aggressive in tone. The way this song achieves greater prominence over the “forces of good” reminded me a little, once I understood what was going on, of the similarly disruptive side drum cadenza in the first movement of Nielsen’s Fifth Symphony. The piece as a whole is tremendously effective and was put across with stunning commitment by the choir. Tormis was present to hear the performance and when he came forward to acknowledge the applause he first bowed deeply to the choir. I think that gives an indication of how highly he rated their rendition of his work.

There followed three very short solo songs by the twelfth century English hermit, St. Godric (d. 1170). The first and third of these featured an excellent tenor soloist while the soprano who sang the second song was no less accomplished. The extreme simplicity of these little pieces was a telling and effective contrast to the much more complex Tormis piece.

The final work on the programme was Pärt’s setting of the Nunc Dimittis. This was written quite some time after the Magnificat, in 2001 to be precise. It’s an easeful, beautiful setting and it was flawlessly sung. Most of the piece is fairly subdued in tone but it rises to a glorious climax at  “lumen ad revelationem gentium” (‘a light to lighten the Gentiles”). The concluding doxology is gentle but with an underlying strength.

The well-deserved ovation resulted in an encore. This was by Nicolas Kedrov and I think it was his setting, in Church Slavonic, of the Our Father (Paul Hillier’s announcement was a little difficult to hear.) This simple and eloquent homophonic setting was given with singing that was at once heartfelt but also exquisitely controlled. It was a very moving conclusion to the evening.

In discussing the performance of the Pärt Nunc Dimittis I used the term “flawlessly sung”. In truth, this phrase could fairly be used of the whole programme. This was, quite simply, one of the finest exhibitions of a capella choral singing I’ve heard in ages. It was an enthralling evening and I just hope that Meurig Bowen will engage this magnificent choir for another Cheltenham Festival in the very near future.

John Quinn


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