Belshazzar's Feast

[BBMmk2]

Maybe not for a fiddler, but the brass and percussion have a field day, surely?
It is a terrific piece to sing. Keeps you on your toes. My first experience of it was as a student, flown out to bolster a performance in Belfast. Before 'the troubles' started. No connection, I hope........

Absolutely! Massively so, as far as the brass goes. Not sure about the "sheddies" department though!:)

[Historian]

Maybe not for a fiddler, but the brass and percussion have a field day, surely?
It is a terrific piece to sing. Keeps you on your toes. My first experience of it was as a student, flown out to bolster a performance in Belfast. Before 'the troubles' started. No connection, I hope........

Agree that it's great fun to sing, but has several tricky corners to negotiate, including the first few pages. Fortunately towards the end you can let yourself go a bit.

[mopsus]

I sang in last night's broadcast performance, and for the record, as well as the BBC NOW chorus, the choir included members of Bristol Choral Society (of whom I am one). We aren't mentioned on the website, but were credited on air (though I think our musical director, Hilary Campbell, who has rehearsed us all term in this piece, deserves a bit of credit too, even though she wasn't officially chorusmaster for the Cardiff performance. I will credit her here). The semi-chorus was the BBC NOW chorus members, with the last, unaccompanied, bit of semi-chorus being only the BBC NOW semichorus members (mostly students at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama).

Listening to the recording of last night on iPlayer, I feel that the balance was different to that in the hall itself, with the orchestra predominating in the iPlayer version.

Paul McCreesh's recording of Berlioz' Grande Messe des Morts is one recent recording which has used a significant number of professional singers in a work requiring a large chorus.

I'd rather been hoping that there'd be a discussion of the concert over on the Performance board, but that seems to be increasingly moribund. I'd venture to suggest that it's because some potential contributors (such as myself) have been driven away by poking their heads above the parapet, only to be carped at by the regulars. I'd be interested to hear honest opinions about last night, but I can't comment in a public forum beyond stating matters of fact such as the above.

[ardcarp]

Just off to work mopsus. There's much in what you say. Will reply later.

[ardcarp]

I think our musical director, Hilary Campbell, who has rehearsed us all term in this piece, deserves a bit of credit too, even though she wasn't officially chorusmaster for the Cardiff performance. I will credit her here

Definitely!

I'd rather been hoping that there'd be a discussion of the concert over on the Performance board, but that seems to be increasingly moribund. I'd venture to suggest that it's because some potential contributors (such as myself) have been driven away by poking their heads above the parapet, only to be carped at by the regulars.

Ironically, The Choir has not been free of the same sort of thing! All I can say is that everyone should feel free to express an opinion and not be put off by others whom they see as experts!

Coming back to Belshazzar, I thoroughly enjoyed the broadcast, and hope my comments were not in any way seen as a downer on the choral forces. I was just fantasising (as someone suggested) about my 'ideal performance'. I remember a time when choral societies who had most of the big Baroque, Classical and Romantic choral works under their belts and having a crack at Belshazzar was something they aspired to along with, perhaps Britten's War Requiem.

[pastoralguy]

Please continue to post, Mopsus. It's great to hear your views.

[jean]

All I can say is that everyone should feel free to express an opinion and not be put off by others whom they see as experts!

I think regulars was the word...

[Pulcinella]

I'm a little surprised to find so many versions on my shelves (no wonder they are groaning!).

Terfel/BBCSO/A Davis
Wilson-Johnson/LSO/Hickox
Terfel/Bournemouth SO/Litton
Rippon/Halle/Loughran
Shirley-Quirk/LSO/Previn
Hampson/CBSO/Rattle
Bell/Philharmonia/Walton

And a BBC MM CD:
White/BBCSO/A Davis

The BaL recommendation in November 2011 was the Andrew Davis version, coupled with RVW's Job: tremendous value on a bargain Apex CD.

[BBMmk2]

I'm a little surprised to find so many versions on my shelves (no wonder they are groaning!).

Terfel/BBCSO/A Davis
Wilson-Johnson/LSO/Hickox
Terfel/Bournemouth SO/Litton
Rippon/Halle/Loughran
Shirley-Quirk/LSO/Previn
Hampson/CBSO/Rattle
Bell/Philharmonia/Walton

And a BBC MM CD:
White/BBCSO/A Davis

The BaL recommendation in November 2011 was the Andrew Davis version, coupled with RVW's Job: tremendous value on a bargain Apex CD.

Yes absolutely terrific recording there, Pulci. I was at the RVW Job Prom.

[Petrushka]

The Philharmonia/Previn concert performance given in Walton's presence for his 80th birthday in 1982, now on DVD, is electrifying and, seeing a very frail Walton acknowledging the tremendous ovation, very moving. I tried to get a ticket for this concert on the day booking opened but it had already sold out.

Belshazzar has long been a great favourite with me and on CD I have:

Shirley-Quirk/LSO/Previn
Luxon/RPO/Previn
Luxon/LPO/Solti
Wilson-Johnson/LSO/Hickox
Bell/Philharmonia/Walton
Hampson/CBSO/Rattle
Terfel/Bournemouth SO/Litton
Terfel/BBC SO/Davis
White/BBC SO/Davis
Roberts/BBCSO/Pritchard

I've been to a few live performances, mostly Proms, over the years but performances nowadays seem much rarer than they once were. Perhaps concert managements are running scared of the costs involved in hiring all those extra players. It's a poor performance that doesn't set the hall alight and it must be thrilling to sing.

I'd noted last Thursday's broadcast down for a live listen but in the event stupidly forgot it. I'll try to catch up on the I-player before it disappears.

[mopsus]

I remember a time when choral societies who had most of the big Baroque, Classical and Romantic choral works under their belts and having a crack at Belshazzar was something they aspired to along with, perhaps Britten's War Requiem.

Nowadays any large choir will have quite a few 20th/21st century works in its repertoire. Bristol Choral Society has in recent years performed the Glagolitic Mass (with the Philharmonia, in the Royal Festival Hall), Poulenc's Gloria and Britten's War Requiem. We (& the BBCNOW's semichorus members) performed Belshazzar with the Philharmonia in Bristol a week before the Cardiff concert. I notice though that some choirs rely a lot on programming Jenkins/Lauridsen/Whitacre, and the tendency of the larger choirs in Bath to do this is one thing that has driven me over to sing in Bristol. I'm not sure whether it's because these composers are thought to be popular, or the lack of an appropriate performance venue in Bath for other works from the last 100 years.

While Belshazzar may be in general less frequently performed, it's had quite a few outings round here recently: as well as ours in Colston Hall, there have been two performances in Bath in 2016, and it's going to be put on in Wells Cathedral in April 2017.

As for my contributions, I don't think I'm going anywhere in the near future! But I have a policy of not evaluating performances I've taken part in, in a public forum. This doesn't restrict me very much round here, as this is only the second time to my knowledge I've been on Radio 3.

[rauschwerk]

The BaL recommendation in November 2011 was the Andrew Davis version, coupled with RVW's Job: tremendous value on a bargain Apex CD.

Prompted by the BaL review I bought that CD. I suppose I played it once, than completely forgot about it until I saw your post. Must have made a great impression!

I was crazy about Belshazzar in my youth, and still regret I never sang it, but perhaps I feel I know it well enough now not to listen to it much.

[jean]

...I notice though that some choirs rely a lot on programming Jenkins/Lauridsen/Whitacre...I'm not sure whether it's because these composers are thought to be popular...

They're undemanding, both for singers and audience.

The large choral societies I knew in the 50s sang Belshazzar's Feast regularly along with all the other choral standards (Handel's Belshazzar not among them, sadly, though Saul appeared regularly).

[rauschwerk]

They're undemanding, both for singers and audience.

That's rather a generalisation in the case of Lauridsen, whose Fire Songs (settings of Italian madrigal texts) have lots more bite, and are more challenging for the singers, than the sacred works (too) often heard.

[jean]

I confess I was thinking mostly of the other two.