CE: St Alban's Church, Holborn, London Wed, 28th August 2019

[DracoM]

CE: St Alban's Church, Holborn, London Wed, 28th August 2019
Genesis Sixteen


Order of Service:


Introit: Let all mortal flesh keep silence (Bairstow)
Responses: Rose
Psalms 136, 137, 138 (Reid, Lang, Buck)
First Lesson: Isaiah 45: 1-7
Office hymn: Now thank we all our God (Nun danket)
Magnificat for mixed voices (Thomas Hyde)
Second Lesson: Ephesians 4: 1-16
Nunc dimittis (Plainsong)
Anthem: How are the mighty Fallen (Ramsey)
Hymn: Immortal, Invisible, God only wise (St Denio)

Voluntary: Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 543 (Bach)


Timothy Wakerell (Organist)
Harry Christophers, Eamonn Dougan, Harry Bradford (Conductors)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0007y7x

[DracoM]

Reminder: today @ 3.30 pm.

From their website:
"Genesis Sixteen is The Sixteen’s free young artists’ scheme, which aims to nurture the next generation of talented ensemble singers.
During the course of a year, a series of week-long and weekend courses are led by key figures from The Sixteen, including founder and conductor Harry Christophers and associate conductor Eamonn Dougan."

[DracoM]

Solo sop abrasively and completely dominating the whole service, with all the properties that must make her a No 1 candidate for the BBC Singers.

[oddoneout]

Solo sop abrasively and completely dominating the whole service, with all the properties that must make her a No 1 candidate for the BBC Singers.

Making a nonsense of the psalms - soloist and tuttischwein.

[oddoneout]

The balance changed in the office hymn - for the better - with the choir sounding more distant, but the men more in evidence cf the diva.

[DracoM]

Changed, but only marginally IMO.
Crikey, is THIS the future of the Sixteen?

[jonfan]

Very disappointing as Genesis from St Alban’s has sounded superb in the past. Everyone sounded bored with the whole exercise except for the stunning Bach on the organ at the end. There was more than one wobbly soprano surely, it sounded like the whole section. Seemed to be a large group of singers but not tightly disciplined and also not clearly recorded. The best singing was in the opening Bairstow but the psalms might have been a phone directory, exhibiting no sense of the words they were singing. Hope this is not a foretaste of the next 40 years of the Sixteen.

[DracoM]

[Nevilevelis]

Solo sop abrasively and completely dominating the whole service, with all the properties that must make her a No 1 candidate for the BBC Singers.

When did you last hear the BBC Singers?! "Abrasive" and "dominating" is not the way I would describe the present team! Their sound has changed remarkably and for the better. I suppose if you like tight and white noise (Stile, Tenebrae) then... a chacun... but still unfair in my view.

[DracoM]

The adjectives you used / said I used apply to one very prominent Gen 16 sop, NOT the whole ensemble and not the BBC S
BUT
Over the years, many on this Forum / The Choir know that saying 'like the BBC Singers' is shorthand for referring to a certain 'style' of vocal ensemble and sound.

Others above have made critical statements about the Gen16 ensemble. I did not.

[mopsus]

I don't think the aim is necessarily to train singers to produce the sort of sound that would blend into The Sixteen. A number of graduates from Genesis Sixteen have gone on to specialise in opera, in which skill in ensemble singing is also necessary.

[DracoM]

Reminder: rpt this p.m. - Sunday.