THE ADVERTISER, MAY-: 8, 1987
< Choir's polish in ‘Requiem’
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LESS obviously ethereal
than Faure’s Requiem?
Combining beauty with
a large measure of refinement and sophistication of the type that
seems so natural to the
French creative mind
(whether in music, literature or painting) of the
first half of this century?
Whatever the reason — and
precious little has been written
about it — Durufle’s Requiem
is a work which is gaining in
popularity and recognition
among performers and audiences alike.
On Saturday it received a
most attractively sung performance in Guildford Cathedral
by Guildford Philharmonic
Choir, supported excellently by
Guildford
Philharmonic
Orchestra; all under the sym-
pathetic baton of Sir David
Willcocks.
:
The training of the choir by
Neville Creed was reflected in
a performance on Saturday of
assurance and polish together
with an excellent sense of empathy with Durufle’s Requiem.
The ability to encompass
within a performance both the
sonority and shimmering grandeur of the Sanctus, as well as
the simplicity and mellowness
of Lux Aeterna, speaks volumes for the high quality of
both singing and playing on
this occasion.
Willcocks’s conducting con-
tributed a great deal to the
excellent balance and blend of
sound. In particular, he drew
from the women’s voices a beguiling purity of sound in, for
instance, the latter part of Libera Me, just as he had already
achieved from the men at the
start of the same section.
Looking for other positive
aspects of this performance,
the small but sensitively written mezzo solo by Anne-Margaret Cameron and baritone
cameo by Gerald Finley were
both interpreted strongly
rather than just sung.
In all, as fine a sound as I
have heard from the choir for a
long time; it was one which
they also produced in Holst’s
Hymn of Jesus. Quite a few
bars of this sound like a P.S.
or continuation of Neptune the
Mystic from the composer’s
Planets Suite written three
years previously.
- From the light and plaintive
opening Willcocks and the
choir established an almost
mesmeric quality, with an admirable purity of tone from sopranos and tenors. The
performance was also notable
for the richness of choral tonal
colours
Andrew Millington was admirable in the organ part in
both these works, bringing a
particularly effective blend of
sound to the Agnus Dei in the
Durufle work.
:
Between the cheral delights
was a somewhat ill-fitting Mozart Clarinet Concerto. Jack
Brymer evidently knows this
work backwards, which is how
he might just as well have
played it for all the rapport
there was between him and the
Guildford Philharmonic.
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