BBC Singers: Music for Advent: December 4th

[jean]

Have we really not got a thread about this?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/orchestras/events/1188

They aren't my favourite group for early music, but I thought they did the Palestrina Surge, Illuminare very well indeed. And the Bax Mater ora filium was superb.

[Finzi4ever]

Have we really not got a thread about this?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/orchestras/events/1188

They aren't my favourite group for early music, but I thought they did the Palestrina Surge, Illuminare very well indeed. And the Bax Mater ora filium was superb.

ditto the Howells.
The Tavener needed rather more architectural space, resonance, or even recording distance from the W-end Marcussen to have been effective for me (prob imposs in that chapel which I know and have recorded in).

I don't think I'll be learning the Muhly O Antiphon Preludes any Advent soon.

[DracoM]

The concert took place at Tonbridge School today, Tuesday 4th Dec 2012

Here is the programme:

NICO MUHLY O Sapientia (O Antiphon Preludes, No 1)
CECILIA MCDOWALL Cantate, Astra
NICO MUHLY O Adonai (O Antiphon Preludes, No 2)
PALESTRINA Surge illuminare
NICO MUHLY O Radix Jesse (O Antiphon Preludes, No 3)
BACH Chorale Prelude Nun Komm der heiden Heiland (BVW 659)
NICO MUHLY O Clavis David (O Antiphon Preludes, No 4)
BAX Mater ora filium
NICO MUHLY O Oriens (O Antiphon Preludes, No 5)
BOB CHILCOTT The Rose in the Middle of Winter
NICO MUHLY O Rex Gentium (O Antiphon Preludes, No 6)
HOWELLS Three Carol-Anthems
NICO MUHLY O Emmanuel (O Antiphon Preludes, No 7)
JOHN TAVENER A Christmas Proclamation: God is with us

BBC Singers

James McVinnie organ
David Hill conductor

[Alison]

Perhaps for the first time in Radio 3 history only two people listened to this broadcast.

[decantor]

Perhaps for the first time in Radio 3 history only two people listened to this broadcast.

I would have made it three - but the piano tuner was here, and it really wouldn't have been fair............

[MrGongGong]

Perhaps for the first time in Radio 3 history only two people listened to this broadcast.

I didn't see it but am quite keen on Nico Muhly so thanks for letting me know

[Keraulophone]

Perhaps for the first time in Radio 3 history only two people listened to this broadcast.

Wearying of the Sops, I pressed the function button (as opposed to the John's button, ard) after the Bax (great piece), and enjoyed a Gabriel Jackson CD sung by St Mary's, Edinburgh.

[Roger Judd]

Make it three ...! I'm afraid the organ pieces, Bach excepted, didn't do much for me, but I thought the three Howells pieces, the Palestrina, and especially the wonderful Bax piece were very well worth the listen - what a fine piece that is - thanks Singers. Having done the Tavener piece for more Christmas Eves than I care to remember at Windsor I had hoped not to have heard it again - sorry John!
RJ

[jean]

Nobody's mentioned the Bob Chilcott...

[subcontrabass]

Having done the Tavener piece for more Christmas Eves than I care to remember at Windsor I had hoped not to have heard it again - sorry John!
RJ

Not one of his better pieces, it somehow misses the thrill that this item should have in the Christmas Eve service, when the choir bursts into song for the first time with this at the Christmas Vigil service after about ten minutes of solo psalm reading. Compare, for instance, with this version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I64tfAE1mQ

[Gabriel Jackson]

Not one of his better pieces, it somehow misses the thrill that this item should have in the Christmas Eve service, when the choir bursts into song for the first time with this at the Christmas Vigil service after about ten minutes of solo psalm reading. Compare, for instance, with this version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I64tfAE1mQ

Careful - they're singing with vibrato, and you know how badly that goes down here!

[rauschwerk]

Perhaps for the first time in Radio 3 history only two people listened to this broadcast.

I caught some of it in the car. I liked what I heard and hope to catch up with it all today.

[Alison]

Thanks to this thread I am intrigued by the Bax now

Looks as if DracoM may have heeded the advice not to listen if certain to rocket bomb later !

[Gabriel Jackson]

Thanks to this thread I am intrigued by the Bax now

It's an amazing piece! Supposedly inspired by his hearing of the Byrd 5-part Mass - I don't see that connection at all. I wonder if he had heard, or at least seen, any big Votive Antiphons from the Eton Choirbook, a much more likely stimulus, to my mind.

[ardcarp]

The Bax is a most unusual piece. It's described as 'double choir' yet sometimes the parts go divisi as well as in that high soprano triad (for which the BBCS miraculously found a straight-ish sound). Singing Ora Mater Filium is a strange experience as the lines seem to get gradually more complex...and there is a lot of 'business' going on...more, one wonders, than the average listener can comprehend. The BBCS seemed to be good in the quieter bits, but as usual the texture got a bit obscure when they were all belting it out. There is a KCC recording where all is much more transparent. No doubt others too. The BBCS pressed the so-called 'John's button' rather unsubtly, I thought, and on the whole the piece seemed more a patchwork than an entity in their hands.

Shoot me now, someone.....