-
The Festival
SUBTLE SOLOIST
Choir knew
John Barrow (baritone) gave ;
a splendidly forthright and con-|,
fident account of the rewarding |,
solo part. The graphic descrip- b
‘tion of ancient Babylon could
- greatness
TenA“o~hrtm
slightly
been
have
perhaps
more exaggerated, and no doubt
John Barrow will acquire the
extra ‘‘swank” after a few more
I AM not given to encomias~ tic utterances, but last
performances,
The “writing on the wall”
however, I have never heard any
baritone sing with more subtle
effect, and the choir’'s short
Saturday’s concert in the
Civic Hall provided Guildford with as electrifying -a
climax to ‘the municipal
season as any that I can
sharp yell, when DBelshazzar is
slain at the hands of Cyrus’s
Persian army, Was highly effec-
-
tive. Thig shout is the demarcation line between the jittery, oy
uneven, high-tensioned, corrupt|
remember; the response from
palace-life tone-painting which j.
the audience was overwhelm-
entalists |
it, and the triumpl nt, |
preceded
glowing pean of praise which{
follows it; it reminds me of the
shout of “Barabbas” in Bach's
A
ot be|
wo d not
Admittedly it woul
very easy to give a workaday
account of this modern oratorio
with its highly dramatic music
and its equally dramatic text,
derived by Oshert Sitwell from
(as far as I can make out)
Isaiah, Daniel and the Psalms;
but loose-limbed, imprecise per-
formances are common.
1 have never before fully
appreciated the rhythmic im-
pact of Walton’s music, which
Vernon
Handley,
dJohn
Bar-
the Festival Choir and
the Guildford Philharmonic
Orchestra produced between
row,
them,
Not that the performance was
without occasional error, both of
notes and intonation in choir
and orchestra, but this was not
serious; there was no misjudgment of style or interpretation
by any of the performers.
.
e Choir in sing- Festival
Th
g Belshazzar’s keast at
has
reached
new
a
all
high
standard; to have sung it as
it did, however, is a feather
in its cap that not many choirs
in the country could emulate.
The sopranos ang contraltos
were particularly
sound,
and
maintained their firm tone even
when split into four parts. It
the whole choir at times, and at
certain pitches, sounded rather
weak, this is due to an acoustic
fault of the Civic Hall, which
has never been over-kKind either
to stringed instruments or to
choirs; but the tone quality in
the high tessitura of the
soprano line was never affected
by these quirks, while the unaccompanied tenors and basses
at the start of the work set a
high
standard
in
accuracy and diction.
[FERS=
rhythmic
a truly three-dimensjonal
It was a relief to find all the
bands in agreement over pitch;
in fact the only brass instrument
out of tune was one of the
orchestra’s own trumpets.
BALLET SUITE
Before the interval, a much
reduced orchestra of some three
dozen players gave a pleasing
performance of Stravinsky’'s neo-
classic ballet suite—'‘Pulcinella.”
In this the composer has taken
a number of tunes from
Pergolesi’s trio sonatas, and
arranged
and
them
extended
them into a suite of pieces for
orchestra. Not great music this,
not even great Stravinsky, but
a piquant hors d’ceuvre with a
number of pleasantly contrasting
flavours and textures.
Thus ends another highly successful season of music spon-
sored by Guildford Corporation,
and organised and conducted by
director,
musical
Guildford’s
It would seem
Vernon Handley.
| unlikely that the orchestra and
choirs could surpass their present achievements next season to
any extent; their present
standargd and reputation is
something of which any town
or
city
should be
proud.""c- C-
g
extremely