CE Parish Church of St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol April 3rd 2013

[DracoM]

CE Parish Church of St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol
RSCM Millennium Youth Choir




Order of Service:



Introit: Sing ye to the Lord (Bairstow)
Office hymn: Christ the Lord is risen again (Würtemburg)
Psalms: 141, 105: 1-15 (Ogden, Ouseley)
First Lesson: Exodus 12: 37-end
Canticles: (Roxanna Panufnik - 1st broadcast)
Second Lesson: 1 Corinthians 15: 20-28
Anthems: Alleluia (Owain Park - 1st broadcast); O filii et filiæ (Philip Moore - 1st broadcast)
Hymn: Thine be the glory (Maccabæus)



Organ Voluntary: Live Wire (Iain Farrington - 1st broadcast)



Organist: Daniel Moult
Director: David Ogden





Please excuse extremely early posting.

[ardcarp]

Please excuse extremely early posting.

No need for apology. It's good to see another 'smaller' establishment doing a broadcast. Anyone know what the set-up is there these days? I know it's a fine church with a decent organ. Have they broadcast before?

[french frank]

I don't know what the RSCM Millennium Youth Choir is. David Ogden also directs the City of Bristol Choir and the Exultate Singers.

[Hautboiste]

http://www.rscm.com/myc

Here are details of the RSCM Millennium Choir.

[french frank]

So they're attending a course in Bristol? No connection with St Mary Redcliffe itself?

[ardcarp]

Sorry...I think I got the wrong end of the stick. Must read posts more carefully.

[njfreestone]

Notwithstanding the fact that the church choir are not broadcasting on this occasion, they did broadcast on BBC1 for the Christmas Day morning Eucharist last year.

[DracoM]

Reminder: today @ 3.30 p.m.
Even if it isn't the Parish Church Choir.

[DracoM]

After the Lord Mayor's Show?
Holy Week repertoire is so rich, varied, committed and engaging that this CE came over as pretty lightweight.
Everyone tried terribly, terribly hard from the OTT earnest minister to the tenors struggling to be heard to the jazz-fingering vol.

Oh dear.

[Oldcrofter]

I was interested to listen to the three choral pieces broadcast for the first time and the organ piece "Live Wire" by Iain Farrington, here played as the voluntary, and also a first broadcast. I liked the way in which Owain Park (a Bristol lad) used a strong, and very low bass line, set against the sopranos with unusual scrunchy intervals with a rippling organ, with the quieter sections contrasting with the very strong final Alleluias. A young composer (20-ish) and organist to watch out for, I'd say.

Roxanna Panufnik (daughter of conductor AP) - possibly another Bristol connection here ? Were the Canticles those commissioned by the Exultate Singers ? I thought this a good choice for the choir giving the sops plenty of opportunity to soar above the blended chords.

Philip Moore's O Filii et Filiae - good plainsong unison work by all sections, I thought - I always think that unison singing is such a good test of a choir's musicality. I thought the singers handled the contrasting quieter and louder sections and the rhythmic variations very competently indeed before broadening out into the final emphatic Alleluia.

I presume The Millenium Youth Choir get together only occasionally for a few days at workshops and residential courses and unlike Draco, I didn't find either their singing or the choice of music "pretty lightweight". As you can probably tell from my musically naive comments, I have no personal background in church music but I do have an interest in youth choirs and music that suits their level of performance and interest, and I felt this was the case with the choice of music in this service.

I heard the voluntary "Live Wire" as light-hearted rather than light-weight - (is that what you meant by "jazz fingering" and "oh dear", Draco ?) but I appreciate that it's not what many regular listeners to choral evensong wish or expect to hear. I admit too that I heard the programme more as a performance than as an act of worship. So I say 'Well done indeed!' to all the young singers and organist Daniel Moult.

Now the rest of the habitual commentators can come in and shoot me down !

[DracoM]

Why shoot you down? Excellent to hear other opinions. Thank you for re-calibrating it.

[GerontiusAngel]

After the Lord Mayor's Show?
Holy Week repertoire is so rich, varied, committed and engaging that this CE came over as pretty lightweight.
Everyone tried terribly, terribly hard from the OTT earnest minister to the tenors struggling to be heard to the jazz-fingering vol.

Oh dear.

What a pathetic, supremely patronising response DracoM. Premiere broadcast of Roxanna Panufnik's Canticles 'lightweight'? A group of young singers putting singing ahead of the many academic demands on their time over Easter trying 'terribly hard'? Do you have a personal issue with this choir? Say something constructive, or nothing at all.

[Oldcrofter]

Good to read a positive response, Gerontius - I was beginning to wonder if I was alone in hearing some interesting music and some very good singing. I too found the early comments on this thread dismissive of the efforts of the young singers - I was tempted to write "performers" but that would suggest I'm putting them in the category of a 'performance choir' full of X-factor wannabees (favourite put-downs on this board when it comes to youth groups.)

[DracoM]

What a pathetic, supremely patronising response DracoM. Premiere broadcast of Roxanna Panufnik's Canticles 'lightweight'? A group of young singers putting singing ahead of the many academic demands on their time over Easter trying 'terribly hard'? Do you have a personal issue with this choir? Say something constructive, or nothing at all.

This is a Forum for the exchange and expression of opinion. I was disappointed. I said so.

It does not mean that they are not good musicians, that they did not have well-known and newish composers etc for their material, nor that they did not care how it came across. But, all that said, it did not intrigue enough to make me want to listen again.

I've heard this choir on several occasions both on radio and live. They can and do perform more excitingly and with far more impact than here.

Quot homines tot sententiae.

[W.Kearns]

What is the difference between 'a forum for the exchange and expression of opinion' and an arena in which to vent pet prejudices?