CE Keble College, Oxford 18th April 2012

[DracoM]

CE Keble College, Oxford



Order of Service:



Introit: Rise, heart, thy Lord is risen (Five Mystical Songs - Vaughan Williams)
Responses: Clucas
Psalms: 93, 94 (Rose, Atkins, Howells)
First Lesson: Hosea 5: 15-6: 6
Canticles: Evening Service in D (Brewer)
Second Lesson: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Anthem: Thou, O God, art praised in Sion (Malcolm Boyle)
Hymn: Rejoice today with one accord (Ein' feste Burg)


Organ Voluntary: Chorale Fantasia on 'Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott' Op. 27 (Reger)



Richard Dawson (Junior Organ Scholar)
Leonard Sanderman (Henshall Organ Scholar)

Simon Whalley (Director of Music)

[ardcarp]

They've replaced their electronic organ with something proper, haven't they? Look forward to hearing it. (Hope it's suitable for accompanying Brewer and VW.)

[Wolsey]

They've replaced their electronic organ with something proper, haven't they? Look forward to hearing it.

Yes, indeed. I've just returned home from a recital given there this evening by Dame Gillian Weir. She played superbly in a programme of Olympian proportions, and the Tickell organ sounded impressive in the wonderful chapel acoustic.

[ardcarp]

Lord preserve us. Are they trying to spin out 20 mins music into an hour?

[Finzi4ever]

Lord preserve us. Are they trying to spin out 20 mins music into an hour?

I think you underestimate the sheer tour de force that is that particular piece of Reger! Fair enough, I suppose, to want to show it off in that their broadcasting today has more to do with their new instrument than their choir...?

Oh that Precentrix!

[ardcarp]

Finzi. Agree on both counts. There seem to be an awful lot of female/US chaplains around the Oxbridge colleges at the moment. Is this a fashion? The ivories were certainly given a good Tickell today.....

[DracoM]

Pretty run of the mill. Feel a bit sorry for opening soloist. Not sure it was in his range. And I really do have to agree with remarks about precentrix. NCO and now Keble with American women leading services?. Loud, piercing voice, interestingly 'Roman' chants for second set of responses - btw, was it my ears, or did they get into a bit of bother with that second set of responses at one point?

Week by week we are spoiled by excellence, but this choir sounded as if they had a bit to go yet.

[ardcarp]

Feel a bit sorry for opening soloist

Yes, it needs a mature voice to sustain this, but the tempo of the piece just made it fall flat on its face. It doesn't need to be fast but it's just got to have some forward momentum. It kept stalling, and any sense of Easter joy seemed entirely absent. I guess the director was aiming at a big, dignified sound to match the big, dignified acoustics; on the radio at least, it just didn't work. I've heard Oxford's Schola Cantorum singing superbly in there several times in the past, and that sort of treatment just wasn't necessary. I still wonder if today there wasn't an element of filling the time as well as the space!

[Magnificat]

[QUOTEOh that Precentrix![/QUOTE]

Finzi,

I have nothing against women or Americans but why on earth did they let her sing when she can't sing?

Any one of the choir could have been Cantor and although the choir wasn't the greatest it would have made for a much better ordered service all round.

VCC

[Y Mab Afradlon]

We've often heard very ambitious pieces prove too much of an ordeal from young inexperienced ensembles. One has to question the choice of introit as I’m sure that an alternative would have given this choir the confidence to flourish in the remainder of the broadcast. Perhaps the production team should lean on these Organ Scholars to remind them that this is often a wonderful showcase for choirs to take advantage of, but can also become a reputation killer. There were several occasions when there were suspect vowel sounds in the Canticles and at one point the wheels nearly came off in the Responses. It was nice to hear a bit of “Old school” chanting of the collects. Was this broadcast all about the new organ?

[Finzi4ever]

We've often heard very ambitious pieces prove too much of an ordeal from young inexperienced ensembles. One has to question the choice of introit as I’m sure that an alternative would have given this choir the confidence to flourish in the remainder of the broadcast. Perhaps the production team should lean on these Organ Scholars to remind them that this is often a wonderful showcase for choirs to take advantage of, but can also become a reputation killer. There were several occasions when there were suspect vowel sounds in the Canticles and at one point the wheels nearly came off in the Responses. It was nice to hear a bit of “Old school” chanting of the collects. Was this broadcast all about the new organ?

... methinks so, sadly. Even though the (excellent) new instrument is not miles away at the West end, it is up quite high and so this distance might well have been the cause of some questionable choir intonation. Sadly I have to agree about the choice of introit in the circumstances and we were all willing the soloist to get up there possibly to the point of it exhausting us nearly as much as it seemed to be a strain for him...

Bluntly, Keble was a bit of a low point compared to recent months. That said, apart from the Mystical Pong the repertoire was well chosen.

[Finzi4ever]

PS: have always been soft on that Boyle anthem, with one of the great 'treble tunes' of the 20th C in the middle (not unlike the one in Blessed City), and it was standard in the Lloyd-era Durham days (incl. a good recording of it) - ah, happy days for some of us!

[DracoM]

One would surmise that there must be one or two at least cathedral etc choirs who would have given a lot to stage a CE last Wednesday, even to getting their choirs back a day or so early to practice. Likewise, there is a HUGE BBC archive if not. What we heard on Wednesday was .....well, just a tad dismaying.

[Roger Judd]

Was this broadcast all about the new organ? Yes, without a doubt ..!

I'm reminded of two 'notorious' broadcasts from St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle in October 1965. Choral Evensong then was only allowed 45 minutes air time, but Sidney Campbell managed to whip the choir through 'the business', including the penetential rite at the beginning of the service, in around 30 minutes, so that an entire voluntary could be aired, unusual, if not unique in those days. Harrison & Harrison had only recently finished their wonderful new instrument in the chapel, and a Praeludium in D minor by Buxtehude was played at one service, and the Toccata (from the Suite) by Duruflé at the other. The Psalms especially went at one hell of a lick to facilitate this! The Duruflé, by the way, was played by the brilliant young organ scholar at that time, who later came back to St G's as assistant organist, and my predecessor, John Porter.

Last year, St Edmundsbury did a rather more subtle job show-casing their wonderful new instrument, by programming an anthem (Bairstow Blessed city), which has a splendidly colourful organ part, as well as a fine Howells voluntary.

RJ

[Keraulophone]

However wonderful the new organ in Keble chapel, the old pipe organ was made to work effectively enough by organ scholar Colin Walsh accompanying Christ Church Cathedral Choir dir. Simon Preston in one of my all-time favourite choral recordings: 'Romantic Choral Classics' on the Argo ZRG871 rec.Oct. 1977. Majestic accounts of 'Give unto the Lord' (EE), 'Christus factus est' (AB) and other gems that sounded very well in that resonant acoustic - the CCChoir enjoying themselves away from the dead acoustic of home. To the best of my knowledge, of the ten tracks on the LP, only the Elgar has been reissued on CD.

This organ was replaced by a Copeman Hart digital organ which had done temporary service at Truro Cathedral while its Father Willis was being given a brush-up during the early 1990s. The harpsichord stop on the CH raised a smile when used, sparingly, but inevitably always inappropriately (by Mr Briggs).