CE Choir of King's College London Dec 28th 2011

[DracoM]

CE from St John's Church, Upper Norwood, London
Choir of King's College, London
Feast of the Holy Innocents


Order of Service:



Introit: Vox in Rama (Bernadino de Ribera)
Responses: Tomkins
Office Hymn: Salvete flores martyrum (Victoria)
Psalms: 123 (Roseingrave) 124 (Knight) 127 (Garrett) and 128 (Turle)
First lesson: Jeremiah 31: 15-17
Magnificat sexti toni a 12 (Victoria)
Second lesson: Matthew 2: 13-18
Nunc dimittis (Victoria)
Anthem: Singet dem Herrn BWV 225 (Bach)
Hymn: Unto us is born a Son



Organ Voluntary: Prelude in G major BWV 541 (Bach)




Organ Scholars: Richard Hall and Christopher Woodward
Director of Music: David Trendell

[DracoM]

Just a reminder.

[DracoM]

I really liked a lot of this. Weighty de Ribrera introit sung largely vibrato-free, dark-hued, measured pace. Three psalms nicely turned, and the Victoria 'canticles' good mix of chant and polyphony. Not so sure about the Bach which seemed to my ears to be just a bit blurred as if it started out a deal faster than originally intended and once in there was nowhere to hide. Hmm.

A much solider showing by this good choir this time. Like to have heard those altos leading the Victoria next time and the whole thing pitched differently to bring out Victoria's way with gravelly basses.

[ardcarp]

Up to the end of the second set of responses this was a most effective CE...introit, Victoria canticles and plainsong antiphons all lovely. BUT Singet? Surely a big mistake. For a start it seemed quite out of context with The Holy Innocents theme, and secondly it is a very, very difficult piece to pull off for a small chamber choir with young voices and no supporting continuo. There was increasing evidence of fatigue in the voices (not surprising as it was sung can belto) and I am afraid there were many wince-worthy moments. This was a great shame because the CE was very musically directed...just let down at the last hurdle by (IMHO of course) a bad choice.

[DracoM]

Agree with ardcarp about the very odd choice of Singet for a Holy Innocents day? Erm.....?

Those runs are punishing, seem to go on for ever, and I'm afraid they did indeed seem to take their toll. As suggested, it seemed fast, and I wondered if it was just too fast to articulate, or a deal faster than they had rehearsed.

Wonder what they thought when they heard the tapes?

[Y Mab Afradlon]

I thoroughly enjoyed the de Ribera introit, a real find and the choir are obviously comfortable with the music of Victoria. I agree with the posts that call into question the need for such a challenging anthem as Singet. So I'll get back to some more positive ground in that the choice of chants for the four shortish psalms were very appropriate and the chanting was much to my taste. Good to see that this choir is gaining some positive notoriety with it's annual broadcasts

[Musicality + Intonation]

I do agree that it was a very good broadcast until the anthem!