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NOVEMBER 3, 2000
Theatre Arts r«
-Magnificent Mozart
ONE could speculate endlessly over why Mozart
never finished the great C
Minor Mass, written to
introduces his new wife
Constanze (and her voice)
to the parental home in
Salzburg.
But
what
remains is indeed magnificent.
Its
performance
by
the
Guildford Philharmonic Choir
was the climax of a memorable
evening at the Cathedral, last
Saturday.
The quality of the choir was
apparent from the outset, in a
suitably dramatic performance of
Haydn’s motet Insanae et vanae
curae, which alternates between
the stormy and the soothing.
Mozart pulled no punches in
writing the Mass. It is Mozart at
his most fervent, and at his most
demanding. The soloists, particularly the two -sopranos, swoop
and soar through a vast range,
while the choir has to negotiate
long runs of notes, which twist
and turn quirkishly and leave the
minimum opportunity to take a
breath.
Under Jeremy Backhouse, the
choir sang with a conviction that
would have warmed the composer’s heart. In the complex runs of
the Cum Sancto Spiritu fugue
they were well drilled and flexible
in tone and dynamic.
The Qui Tollis contains a wonderful passage of sinking, chromatic harmonies where a sudden
hushing of the tones sounded
chillingly effective.
clean
cutting
trumpets
and
horns.
Such qualities also permeated
the performance of Mozart’s
great G minor symphony, with
the exception of the (absent)
trombones and trumpets.
Soprano Helen Neeves inter-acted beautifully with the exquisite solo woodwind in the Et
Incarnatus, and was complemented by soprano Ghislaine
Morgan and tenor Jon English in
the Quoniam, a stunning virtuosic trio. The soloists, including
bass Colin Campbell, formed an
excellently blended quartet in the
Benedictus.
A remarkable piece, moving
through key after key, with a new
exciting melody or striking
sonority or dissonant harmony
over every page, this plunges
again and again into sombre
melancholy, before picking itself
up again.
The Brandenburg Sinfonia
played superbly, with dashing
strings, radiant woodwind, skilful trombones, which added a
unique colour to the music, and
Shelagh Godwin
The slow movement, with its
combination of long sinuous
tunes and dainty flourishes was
particularly entrancing.