CE The Rodolfus Choir Jan 2nd 2013

[DracoM]

CE The Rodolfus Choir
From the Chapel of St Peter's College, Oxford


Order of Service:



Introit: Domine salva nos (Byrd)
Responses: Byrd
Psalms: 12, 13, 14 (Goss, Allwood, Stanford)
First Lesson: Ruth 1
Office Hymn: Why, impious Herod (Veni redemptor)
Magnificat primi toni à 8 (Victoria)
Second Lesson: Colossians 2: 8-end
Nunc dimittis tertii toni à 4 (Victoria)
Anthem: Reges Tharsis et insulae (Sheppard)
Final Hymn: Brightest and best of the sons of the morning (Liebster Immanuel)


Organ Voluntary: Prelude and Fugue in G - BWV 541 (J.S.Bach)


Steven Grahl (Organist)
Ralph Allwood (Director of Music)

[ardcarp]

From the Chapel of St Peter's College, Oxford

Is this a new venue for them? Glad they're doing that tune to 'Brightest and Best'.

[decantor]

Is this a new venue for them?

Yes. In the past, they usually sang from Eton College chapel. With RA now retired from the College staff, I suppose it is less easy to commandeer that building.

[DracoM]

Reminder. Bit late. Sorry.

[ardcarp]

...for the buffs:

http://www.spc.ox.ac.uk/text/83/organ.html

[ardcarp]

...anyone heard the broadcast and/or got any comments?

[Simon]

Just listened.

I wasn't impressed at the start - "would withou end" in the responses was not good, but the diction improved after that.

The great Goss chant didn't suit that choir - it needs the steel and drama of boys/men - and there was something wildly amiss with the diminished chord at the start of the 4th section. In fact, I thought the psalms were the least well sung of everything, they just didn't seem comfortable.

But then everything moved up to top gear, and I thought they sang the rest of the service superbly. Maybe they are more used to motets and anthems, and to Victoria repertoire, than to psalmody.

Overall, for me it was a well-organised and thoughtful service, even managing to make that strange first lesson somehow relevant.

[DracoM]

Psalms indeed seemed a tad laboured and as if the whole ensemble was walking across a minefield. Yes, psalms nearly always find choirs out, requiring as they do precision, confidence in the idiom, and exact ensemble for tricky words/setting rhythms, but with this choir [ how big? anyone know?] relatively unfamiliar with each other, and the chapel, it all felt ...well, a bit over-produced.

Sorry, simon, how any choir can make Victoria and Sheppard sound dull, I'm not quite sure, but 'fraid I thought they did.

[Simon]

Depends what you mean by "dull". If you mean in general tone, then I think I know what you mean and would agree. But that's what you get with mixed groups - there isn't the brightness. But in terms of precision and togetherness, I thought they got it right - the Victoria better than the Sheppard, perhaps - and I enjoyed listening. I'll have another go...

[ardcarp]

The Rodolfus Choir, as I understand it, is drawn from past members of The Eton Choir Courses, all under 26, and some (many?) now choral scholars. I imagine that it comes together in holiday periods for particular events (concert, recording, CE, etc) but does not have a fixed membership and does not rehearse regularly together.

I enjoyed CE...it was more than just competent....but maybe they lacked the 'character' of a more permanent choir. I don't know St Peter's College Chapel (an ex-parish church) but feel the Victoria and Shepherd would have sounded finer in a more generous acoustic.