CE Choir of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge 14th Dec 2011

[DracoM]

CE Choir of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
In the Chapel of Worksop College




Order of Service:



Introit: Sanctus (Alcock)
Responses: Geoffrey Webber
Office Hymn: Sancte Cuthberte (Laus Patrono)
Psalm: 38 (Webber)
First Lesson: Jeremiah 7:1-11
Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in D minor (Vaughan Williams)
Second Lesson: 1 Corinthians 2:1-10
Anthem: Komm, Jesu, komm (Bach)
Hymn: Hills of the North, rejoice (Little Cornard)



Organ Voluntary: Prelude and Fugue in C minor (Vaughan Williams)




Annie Lydford and Nick Lee (Organ Scholars)
Timothy Uglow (Director of Music at Worksop College)
Geoffrey Webber (Director of Music)

[ardcarp]

A very good choir with a fine director. Their last broadcast was amazingly professional, but marred, I felt, by one or two over-wobbly sopranos. The choir used to be very 'straight'. The personnel changes of course, but one wonders if there is an increasing trend for singers in such choirs to be 'trained' with a singing career in mind.

[Gabriel Jackson]

A very good choir with a fine director. Their last broadcast was amazingly professional, but marred, I felt, by one or two over-wobbly sopranos. The choir used to be very 'straight'. The personnel changes of course, but one wonders if there is an increasing trend for singers in such choirs to be 'trained' with a singing career in mind.

Indeed! Heaven forbid anyone anyone aspiring to a career as a professional singer should have any training!

[DracoM]

I imagine ardcarp meant a solo singing career in mind, in which different means of projecting get taught.

GJ, the guy says in his very first line what a fine choir they are - we heard them on R3 the other day and they certainly did sound in good nick - and out of the blue you introduce a sour note in answer to a perfectly innocuous questioning first response to this thread. Why?

[ardcarp]

Gabriel and Draco

I don't want to get drawn into the fray! But may I draw your attention to my post under a new thread: The Choir....Sunday December 11th, which partly explains what I was getting at in my usual inept way.

http://www.for3.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?40-The-Choir

[Gabriel Jackson]

I imagine ardcarp meant a solo singing career in mind, in which different means of projecting get taught.

GJ, the guy says in his very first line what a fine choir they are - we heard them on R3 the other day and they certainly did sound in good nick - and out of the blue you introduce a sour note in answer to a perfectly innocuous questioning first response to this thread. Why?

I think the sour note was struck with "marred, I felt, by one or two over-wobbly sopranos"!

Why is it only female vibrato that attracts such opprobrium...?!

[DracoM]

Praulins piece a MUST for any choral music aficionados. A quite astonishing performance by a top, top ensemble, and I DO mean ensemble, and not a group of soloists, though no doubt they could do brilliantly as soloists too, but here blending to huge effect.

Terrific.

[Roehre]

I think the sour note was struck with "marred, I felt, by one or two over-wobbly sopranos"!

Why is it only female vibrato that attracts such opprobrium...?!

This choir appears on the latest BBC MM CD, with remarkable seasonal repertoire, very enjoyable, and generally speaking very well done except that some of the soloists (male and female) are a bit wobbly - which IMO hasn't got anything to do with a vibrato in which you could park a car.

[Gabriel Jackson]

Praulins piece a MUST for any choral music aficionados. A quite astonishing performance by a top, top ensemble, and I DO mean ensemble, and not a group of soloists, though no doubt they could do brilliantly as soloists too, but here blending to huge effect.

Terrific.

I heard a concert by a top, top ensemble tonight who also did brilliantly as soloists when needed - the Russian Christmas concert by the BBC Singers. No other group in this country could do such a programme as well, and as idiomatically. What was it Kaspars said afterwards? "Great choir!". And he knows!

[DracoM]

There should not have been any applause IMO.

[Gabriel Jackson]

There should not have been any applause IMO.

I don't understand?

[subcontrabass]

I heard a concert by a top, top ensemble tonight who also did brilliantly as soloists when needed - the Russian Christmas concert by the BBC Singers. No other group in this country could do such a programme as well, and as idiomatically. What was it Kaspars said afterwards? "Great choir!". And he knows!

I agree about the singing. Unfortunately this concert was billed as a programme of "Russian Orthodox music for the season of Advent and Christmas." There was NO Advent music. Ony about half of the items included actually related to Christmas. A pity when there is such a wealth of material available.

[Gabriel Jackson]

Actually there was music suitable for Advent. And far more than half the pieces were Christmas-related.

[DracoM]

Because, as Russian Orthodox clergy once opined, this is religious music and thus applause breaks the concentration.

Actually I have many times felt listening to 'religious' music that it is so well done that someone ought to applaud, BUT oddly, the fact that I am cheering inside and no-one else is intensifies the sense of involvement. And a good number of those pieces last night were so short that it seemed a bit inappropriate.

GJ, it does seem that every time the BBC Singers come on R3, you seem to think they are wonderful. Or am I missing something?

[subcontrabass]

Actually there was music suitable for Advent. And far more than half the pieces were Christmas-related.

Let us go through:

Part 1:

Bortniansky: Christmas, non-liturgical

Titov: not Christmas

Kastalsky: Christmas, liturgical

Grigorieva: Christmas, secular

Rachmaninov: August 15th

Part 2:

Gretchaninov: text used every day (except in Easter week) - second verse definitely not Christmas ("Lord you will open my lips, and my mouth will proclaim your praise")

Chesnokov: not Christmas

Sviridov: Christmas, liturgical

Selickis: Christmas, liturgical

Rachmaninov: these parts of the All-Night Vigil are NOT used at Christmas (they are replaced by seasonal texts)