All true. All very true.
Simon: Caius are indeed extremely (and consistently) good, especially considering that their chapel is tiny. I have a huge amount of respect for them, and for Geoffrey Webber.
Things that might conceivably have been described as "cosy relationships" with relation to Clare, but which aren't really:
(1) In the years following 1999 Clare Choir recorded a number of CDs for former Clare student and former DoM John Rutter, both on his own Collegium label and with Naxos. Nothing wrong with that, is there? Really?
(2) Former Clare organ scholar Ivor Bolton booked the choir several times to sing for oratorios in the Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music alongside his St James's Baroque Players, then when he was asked to do the St John Passion in the Proms in 2000 he asked Clare again on condition that they also come to Munich to do the same programme in the inaugural concert in the as-yet-unfinished Herz-Jesu Kirche in Munich as part of the Opernfestspiele. The audience liked this and invited the choir to come back and give annual concerts in their own right (with Ivor directing) for several more years. In 2001 Ivor, who was about to be installed in Salzburg, was asked to do Mozart C Minor Mass in the festival and (controversially) asked if he could use Clare. (There were also performances in Trento and Rovereto.) Again, this went down rather well and there was a repeat visit with the same programme a few years later. The motivation for booking Clare for these things was that it was MUCH cheaper than using a choir of established professional singers, that Ivor felt that a high level of preparation and commitment was guaranteed, and that he knew that we would all relish the opportunities (and that Tim would never agree to any of these projects if we weren't up to it).
(3) Similarly, for the Monteverdi Choir's 35th anniversary concert in 2000, John Eliot Gardiner invited the top Cambridge choirs to join in the chorales for the gala concert in King's Chapel in recognition of the choir's origins and the number of singers that he had used from those choirs. Trinity and Clare gladly agreed. Latterly, JEG invited both choirs to come and sing Berlioz Messe Solennelle and Verdi Quattro Pezzi Sacri alongside the Montes in Paris in 2001. Clare gladly accepted; Trinity didn't, for some reason. Then in 2003 JEG again invited Clare to sing alongside the Montes in a Prom performance of Berlioz L'Enfance du Christ. Again, this is principally because they said "yes" the time before, and because it worked well.
(4) There were a number of oratorio performances and tours with the OAE, Freiburger Barockorchester, etc, with René Jacobs, Richard Egarr (a former Clare organ scholar, just for "full disclosure"), Roger Norrington (again, ex-Clare), Nicholas Kraemer, Daniel Harding and others. Again, these were through having been asked, not through any form of soliciting engagements.
Some might consider all of this as incompatible with being a liturgical choir, but it shouldn't be forgotten that the university term is really rather short and there are services only during termtime. The idea of a division between sacred and secular in music forces is quite recent after all: note that Bach provided both when he was in Leipzig! Clare has long nurtured a very positive and outgoing attitute towards music-making, both among singers and among instrumentalists, and it's not surprising that a lot of Clare people have gone on to have music-making as absolutely central in their lives. There was also the idea that collaborations, joint services, visits and general convivial hospitality were always a good thing for all concerned, socially as well as musically, and that therefore if an opportunity or offer came our way it was always a good idea to take it if we were up to it: "yes" is better than "no". Nor did we ever feel smug about this: we were genuinely grateful, and took genuine pride in aiming to be as good as we possibly could be, because the music deserved it, no matter how pretentious that sounds. (It was never about trying to be better than others, still less about recognition.) And the bottom line was that we should always remember what our primary duty was: professionally, diligently and humbly to sing for the liturgy in chapel. Resent the concert stuff if you must; it was always an extra, no matter how much of it there was.
Graham is continuing to accept suitable concert engagements, provided that the choir is free, that the college approves and that it doesn't interfere with their studies or their chapel duties. I believe they have recently acquired an agent for the first time, and a record deal. That should put pay to talk of cosy relationships, I should think, not that it was ever true.
Anyway, I must get a life. Good night, people!
Simon: Caius are indeed extremely (and consistently) good, especially considering that their chapel is tiny. I have a huge amount of respect for them, and for Geoffrey Webber.
Things that might conceivably have been described as "cosy relationships" with relation to Clare, but which aren't really:
(1) In the years following 1999 Clare Choir recorded a number of CDs for former Clare student and former DoM John Rutter, both on his own Collegium label and with Naxos. Nothing wrong with that, is there? Really?
(2) Former Clare organ scholar Ivor Bolton booked the choir several times to sing for oratorios in the Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music alongside his St James's Baroque Players, then when he was asked to do the St John Passion in the Proms in 2000 he asked Clare again on condition that they also come to Munich to do the same programme in the inaugural concert in the as-yet-unfinished Herz-Jesu Kirche in Munich as part of the Opernfestspiele. The audience liked this and invited the choir to come back and give annual concerts in their own right (with Ivor directing) for several more years. In 2001 Ivor, who was about to be installed in Salzburg, was asked to do Mozart C Minor Mass in the festival and (controversially) asked if he could use Clare. (There were also performances in Trento and Rovereto.) Again, this went down rather well and there was a repeat visit with the same programme a few years later. The motivation for booking Clare for these things was that it was MUCH cheaper than using a choir of established professional singers, that Ivor felt that a high level of preparation and commitment was guaranteed, and that he knew that we would all relish the opportunities (and that Tim would never agree to any of these projects if we weren't up to it).
(3) Similarly, for the Monteverdi Choir's 35th anniversary concert in 2000, John Eliot Gardiner invited the top Cambridge choirs to join in the chorales for the gala concert in King's Chapel in recognition of the choir's origins and the number of singers that he had used from those choirs. Trinity and Clare gladly agreed. Latterly, JEG invited both choirs to come and sing Berlioz Messe Solennelle and Verdi Quattro Pezzi Sacri alongside the Montes in Paris in 2001. Clare gladly accepted; Trinity didn't, for some reason. Then in 2003 JEG again invited Clare to sing alongside the Montes in a Prom performance of Berlioz L'Enfance du Christ. Again, this is principally because they said "yes" the time before, and because it worked well.
(4) There were a number of oratorio performances and tours with the OAE, Freiburger Barockorchester, etc, with René Jacobs, Richard Egarr (a former Clare organ scholar, just for "full disclosure"), Roger Norrington (again, ex-Clare), Nicholas Kraemer, Daniel Harding and others. Again, these were through having been asked, not through any form of soliciting engagements.
Some might consider all of this as incompatible with being a liturgical choir, but it shouldn't be forgotten that the university term is really rather short and there are services only during termtime. The idea of a division between sacred and secular in music forces is quite recent after all: note that Bach provided both when he was in Leipzig! Clare has long nurtured a very positive and outgoing attitute towards music-making, both among singers and among instrumentalists, and it's not surprising that a lot of Clare people have gone on to have music-making as absolutely central in their lives. There was also the idea that collaborations, joint services, visits and general convivial hospitality were always a good thing for all concerned, socially as well as musically, and that therefore if an opportunity or offer came our way it was always a good idea to take it if we were up to it: "yes" is better than "no". Nor did we ever feel smug about this: we were genuinely grateful, and took genuine pride in aiming to be as good as we possibly could be, because the music deserved it, no matter how pretentious that sounds. (It was never about trying to be better than others, still less about recognition.) And the bottom line was that we should always remember what our primary duty was: professionally, diligently and humbly to sing for the liturgy in chapel. Resent the concert stuff if you must; it was always an extra, no matter how much of it there was.
Graham is continuing to accept suitable concert engagements, provided that the choir is free, that the college approves and that it doesn't interfere with their studies or their chapel duties. I believe they have recently acquired an agent for the first time, and a record deal. That should put pay to talk of cosy relationships, I should think, not that it was ever true.
Anyway, I must get a life. Good night, people!
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