Evidently the playing field of resources and institutional conditions is not level, and pretending that it is does nobody any favours at all, but neither, really, do reviews of ANY broadcast, particularly if one is tacitly obliged to tailor one's impressions so that they are calibrated according to a predetermined expectation one is supposed to have formulated. This goes for the putative "flagship" institutions too: it seems expected either that one will swoon over their unassailable brilliance or, on the contrary, pick everything to shreds and moan in extrapolation that nobody bar a couple of token people has had the first clue how to run or train a choir since, oh, let's say 1950 for sake of argument, and that all professionally-trained lay clerks are unmusical, insensitive and narcissistic to boot. Then someone will mention that they would have picked different repertoire, don't approve of the pointing or the gender of the singers (conspiracy!!!) or some other such fascinatingly enlightening gobbit, before we move swiftly on to organ mechanisms and wind pressures. I do often wonder what this achieves, and obviously I comment only rarely these days...
Anyway, I haven't heard this broadcast yet, although some of the Extra Gentlemen who were singing chez nous last night for our Tenebrae service had heard it and shared their thoughts. I'll just say that I admire and respect what can be achieved with choirs where there is no choir school and where all the singers are volunteers. A couple of our current boys started off as Bury choristers, and we maintain cordial links. As some parts of our own diocese seem not to know that they are in our diocese, let alone that worthwhile music-making can and does exist in places other than Cambridge (an attitude less widespread in Cambridge itself, I hasten to add), it's good for us that there are people in Suffolk and elsewhere who would consider venturing over into the fens to us... Recruitment is a major issue even where there is a choir school, but I daresay VCC/Magnificat might opine that that's because we're all going about it in the wrong way and are generally incompetent. Ho hum.
By the way, a few weeks ago when "we" were discussing Mendelssohn Hear my prayer and what was or was not appropriate, I almost chipped in to mention a most delectable performance on a Priory CD from these parts recorded long before my time in 2005. On the CD each piece is preceded by a plainsong office hymn, because we're rather obsessed with those here. Hear my prayer is trundling along nicely (and yes, it was a good treble soloist), so far, so normal, and then, just as it is about to launch into "O for the wings of a dove"... "Now is the healing time decreed", to the Mode III melody Ecce tempus, in that bracing and slightly edgy tone that works so well in this building... And then back into "O for the wings of a dove", refreshed as if by a timely hit of wasabi or the heady crunch of a concealed cardamom pod. The first time I heard it, I actually laughed. It was so naughty, but in its own way so deliciously right! Etheldreda smiled, I'm sure, even if the beige brigade didn't...
Anyway, I haven't heard this broadcast yet, although some of the Extra Gentlemen who were singing chez nous last night for our Tenebrae service had heard it and shared their thoughts. I'll just say that I admire and respect what can be achieved with choirs where there is no choir school and where all the singers are volunteers. A couple of our current boys started off as Bury choristers, and we maintain cordial links. As some parts of our own diocese seem not to know that they are in our diocese, let alone that worthwhile music-making can and does exist in places other than Cambridge (an attitude less widespread in Cambridge itself, I hasten to add), it's good for us that there are people in Suffolk and elsewhere who would consider venturing over into the fens to us... Recruitment is a major issue even where there is a choir school, but I daresay VCC/Magnificat might opine that that's because we're all going about it in the wrong way and are generally incompetent. Ho hum.
By the way, a few weeks ago when "we" were discussing Mendelssohn Hear my prayer and what was or was not appropriate, I almost chipped in to mention a most delectable performance on a Priory CD from these parts recorded long before my time in 2005. On the CD each piece is preceded by a plainsong office hymn, because we're rather obsessed with those here. Hear my prayer is trundling along nicely (and yes, it was a good treble soloist), so far, so normal, and then, just as it is about to launch into "O for the wings of a dove"... "Now is the healing time decreed", to the Mode III melody Ecce tempus, in that bracing and slightly edgy tone that works so well in this building... And then back into "O for the wings of a dove", refreshed as if by a timely hit of wasabi or the heady crunch of a concealed cardamom pod. The first time I heard it, I actually laughed. It was so naughty, but in its own way so deliciously right! Etheldreda smiled, I'm sure, even if the beige brigade didn't...
Never a dull moment here! Ubi caritas ...
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