A SERVICE FOR ADVENT WITH CAROLS 27th Nov 2011

[mangerton]

I am no sound engineer and talk of compression and suchlike leaves me mystified - but, listening on a good FM tuner, I was struck by the lowish volume levels and rather mushy sound of the big hymns. Was that caused by someone fiddling with the sound? The Bach at the end was magical after the thick sound of the hymn (even if, as I heard it at home, there was some slight lack of synchronisation between limbs towards the end.)

Like you, VodkaDilc, I enjoyed the service. I too have a good FM tuner, but live in a dreadful reception area, so listen on my Virgin digital cable box. I thought the sound was good, until the last verse of "Lo", when the level was hurriedly reduced to stop them going into the red. That simply should not happen.

[DracoM]

Well, there are usually 400 or so people in the chapel for this service..............tricky in that kind of space to balance choral textures with mass noise.

[Vile Consort]

Listened to the first two items with teeth gritted. Thought they were rather unpleasant and turned off. I would normally walk over burning coals to hear this choir, but not on this occasion. There was a terrible claustrophobic quality to the sound. I thought the piece with the saxaphone quite horrible and the first hymn just didn't seem to flow somehow. Perhaps I was just the wrong way out.

[DracoM]

Liked the Swayne very much. Fiendish to sing, but there was real discipline and attack, boys sounding like real boys at the bottom of the register on the repeated 'an apple' like a drum riff and then to soar to higher areas. Terrific, exciting drive from the men in that carol too. Service opening was arresting too. That sax was eerie and effective.

Harvey I also liked very much. Much bleaker language, some excellent solo work, instrumentals worked, and I liked the space and air round the lines too. It was one where the dead acoustic of a packed St John's Chapel really worked to make the piece tense, waiting for the next musical event.

Still found the Guerero and the Stanford curiously out of place in that service. Can't put my finger on it - just against the context of the other solo pieces and particularly the O Antiphons, they seemed just.......odd. Yes, I know that the Rorate Coeli is smack on the Advent liturgy, but it just felt part of a different liturgical world. Perversely, I DID like the Eccard.

Choir, particularly the men seemed in very good nick.

[Mr Stoat]

Listened to the first two items with teeth gritted. Thought they were rather unpleasant and turned off. I would normally walk over burning coals to hear this choir, but not on this occasion. There was a terrible claustrophobic quality to the sound. I thought the piece with the saxaphone quite horrible and the first hymn just didn't seem to flow somehow. Perhaps I was just the wrong way out.

I don't think that one can judge congregational hymns on the same level as choir-only items, as there are several hundred unknown quantities to consider! I thought that John Challenger got the first hymn started splendidly with firm, detached chords on the organ, and it stayed "together".

I liked the sound-world of the first carol, but loving the tune "straight" without any embellishment - and at a faster tempo - this didn't "work" for me. Took me a while to work out that the instrument was a saxophone in that acoustic!!

Perhaps the Stanford Mag was programmed, along with the Gardiner, as a "lollipop" to counter the Neild, Swayne, Harvey etc?

I enjoyed the service. A few years ago there was a tendency to "theme" the programme with a lot of, eg Mendelsohn, with little "carol" content.

I found Wachet Auf better "balanced" than last year, although as someone has already mentioned, I find it an anti-climax after the last hymn.

[DracoM]

And here again, they seem tied into the tradition. Wachet Auf every year.

Liturgically, it may well be right, but musically, theatrically, it is very obviously wrong after such a rabble rouser of a final hymn and it just seems a bit after the Lord Mayor's Procession. Bach it may be, but, sorry, I wish they would re-think the final five or so minutes of that service.

[Mr Stoat]

And here again, they seem tied into the tradition. Wachet Auf every year.

Liturgically, it may well be right, but musically, theatrically, it is very obviously wrong after such a rabble rouser of a final hymn and it just seems a bit after the Lord Mayor's Procession. Bach it may be, but, sorry, I wish they would re-think the final five or so minutes of that service.

The Reger Wachet Auf would suit the occasion better, or the Overture to St Paul (Mendelssohn) of which I heard an organ arrangement a few years ago from Southwell.

I find "In Dulci Jubilo" at the end of Kings on Christmas Eve a similar (albeit less so) anti-climax if played on "authentic" registration.

[DracoM]

Good suggestions - but I disagree about the KCC finisher. It too is a very damp squib after everything. In fact, I freuquently turn off after the final hymn for that very reason. No sense of theatre, these guys!!

[Mr Stoat]

Good suggestions - but I disagree about the KCC finisher. It too is a very damp squib after everything. In fact, I freuquently turn off after the final hymn for that very reason. No sense of theatre, these guys!!

Er, if you disagree with me about the KCC finisher, how come you then call it a damp squib.?!

[DracoM]

Woops, read the last line incorrectly.................

Of course I agree!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[DracoM]

So sad that there are no more comments on this major service. Maybe it is now so run of the mill and predictable in format and content that it deters engagement?

[ardcarp]

Well, Mrs Ardcarp and I have finally finished LA-ing the Service (with a fine-tooth comb) and (though one is not supposed to use capitals) would like to give it

A BIG UNRESERVED THUMBS UP

...ok, several (obviously).

We thought it was a beautifully balanced choice of music, extremely well-rehearsed and executed, and in short, the best St John's Advent thingy for a long time. Like Draco, I thought the Swayne and Harvey were fine pieces. Andrew N. had (it seemsd to us) a clear vision of how he wanted stuff to go, and even if one didn't always agree (e.g. Stanford Mag a bit of a romp IOHO) he brought it off really well. There was some lovely controlled singing....all the more creditable for having been done in a packed chapel and under a big metaphorical spotlight.

Particularly interesting was The Cherry Tree Carol...same version as on the old Guest LP, but sounding very different. In many ways it proves that AN has put his stamp on the choir.

I hope Draco will forgive me for quoting:

I wonder if, rather like KCC, their 'big' services might have become a straitjacket, such that improvisation of format, structure and musical repertoire is constrained by the need to remember or be reminded of their global audience. In the end, they and KCC can far too readily be defined by the image makers and even embalmed in aspic by their very successes in a particular format.

These are fine musicians, and at times I feel immensely sorry for them as they set out on what might seem like both millstone and the annual treadmill. As soon as a choir become indelibly associated with an annual ritual, they can become trapped.

For us there was no sense that either AN or the choir had felt the planning or execution of the service any sort of a straitjacket or millstone. I do know what Draco means, because I have felt exactly that after some KCC carol services in recent years. I wonder if, this year, St John's really pulled out all the stops to show us their mettle?

On the subject of stops .....Wachet Auf, what's wrong with it? Who needs a 'big finisher?' We are in the season of Advent after all, and the slightly austere HIPP way of playing it these days seems to chime well with the penitence we're all supposed to be feeling despite Tesco's halls having been decked for weeks already.

Mrs Ardcarps's only adverse comment: "There's too many women in religion these days". (I couldn't possibly comment.)

[bach736]

So sad that there are no more comments on this major service.

The thing is, Draco, quite a lot of us were rather preoccupied with our own Advent carol services yesterday and a 90' LA is a big ask on a Monday morning. Fortunately, it was recorded for me so I shall enjoy listening to it in the car on the way to Cambridge tomorrow.

[decantor]

Let's get the Bad News out of the way first: I loathed the Nield, and clichés like "cultural vandalism" floated around in my head. I thought, when the sax first entered, that the fire alarm was sounding; as it continued, I considered switching off. What a tune to try to embellish with saxophone recitatives! Unforgivable! So say I.

There followed, thank heaven, a very fine Advent service. I remembered the Swayne from its first outing, and preferred this version - the cello somehow seemed better balanced with the choir. I thought the new Harvey piece was nicely worked for the occasion - plangent and lyrical, but still with some twists to negotiate. For the rest, I enjoyed Guerrero's flowing polyphony despite being on tenterhooks that a role had been found for the saxophone or serpent, and thought that the stately tempo of the Gardner added dignity to the piece, as it can easily become breathlessly jig-like. And the choir were indeed in mighty fine voice, well transmitted to us from the producer's van.

And I'd add a little personal - and, I fear, contentious - note. I find the congregational hymns in these services an unwelcome intrusion, as much when I'm present as when I listen on R3. The nebulous, heaving mass of sound contrasts so violently with the exciting precision and musicality of the choir that for me it comes close to ruining the service. It's like giving a punk band a gig between the movements of a Haydn string quartet.

In re: the closing voluntary. I abstain. My preferred option would be a Hakim improvisation!

[ardcarp]

So sad that there are no more comments on this major service.

Draco. Bach736 has a point. Hope post #27 made up for this a bit. Look forward to bach's and others' comments.