Kington Choral Society - Concert Reviews

ANTONIN DVORAK – REQUIEM ST MARY'S CHURCH, KINGTON 7.30 pm Saturday, 20 October 2007

Angharad Morgan, Soprano; Martha McLorinan, Alto; Michael Clee, Tenor; Craig Yates, Baritone;
Peter Dyke, Organ; Maureen Twiddy, Conductor; Kington Choral Society

Review for Mid-Wales Journal by Alan Soper

What an interesting experience it is to travel to a new venue to review a musical work. Familiar music, a disciplined choir, the usual reverence for the piece and the setting and yet every face unknown, the familiar in unfamiliar territory – rather like coming across a branch of Woolworths in Barcelona. What I found on Saturday evening, from my corner of this foreign field, was an unexpected intimacy with my new surroundings – drawn, bit by bit, by Maureen Twiddy’s sensitive interpretation of Dvorak’s Requiem Mass. Under her direction, we, in our large full church, were treated to a fine, disciplined rendition of Dvorak’s great work, full of dynamic, effective changes of mood and sensitive singing.

Angharad Morgan’s fine soprano voice was a perfect fit for the solo and semi-chorus ensemble passages and she brought an extra ethereal quality to her final solo in the Agnus Dei. Craig Yates’ resonant baritone voice brought a depth of feeling and clarity, achieving great sensitivity in the Hostias passage of the Offertorium. Michael Clee presented an accomplished tenor voice with confidence and sensitivity. I was captivated by the mezzo soprano voice of Martha McLorinan who, from the first, sang with a clarity and depth of feeling so suited to a Requiem, perfectly expressed in the Tuba mirum and in just a bar or two of her “dona eis requiem” in the Lacrimosa.

I was impressed by these soloists and by their feeling for each other. The ensemble and semi-chorus singing was frequently brilliant, especially between Angharad Morgan and Martha McLorinan.

Choirs often get little rehearsal time with their soloists, but this Requiem makes many demands on the choral integration of the soloists with the chorus. Kington Choral Society handled this extremely well and the passing of phrases to and from the choir and the soloists was seamless and very supportive of the mood, especially in the Benedictus and the final Agnus Dei.

The choir presented to us the familiar mix of uniform dress, slightly advanced years and too few men! However, what struck me about Kington was their rigour in discipline, diction and presentation and their extraordinary singing of the quieter and more sensitive passages. Given the shortage of male singers – although well supported by some lady tenors – the choice of a work like the Dvorak Requiem could have seemed ambitious, given several tenor and bass splits but, with the exception of a rather light Dies Irae, the choir compensated very well. They sang the dissonances with assurance and brought the resolutions with appropriate relief rather than over confidence, especially in the Pie Jesu.

Peter Dyke was brilliantly supportive and competent on an organ whose resonance sometimes seemed not quite up to the lowest notes.

My feelings at the end of this long work were of a sense that I had listened in to the group’s heart and soul. I felt they were there for me rather than I for them. They sang as if they wanted to give, not just to enjoy and consummate a lot of Monday night practices and yet had an obvious pleasure and feeling for the work. Kington Choral Society, and especially Maureen Twiddy, are to be congratulated.

It then being about ten minutes after the end of the England-South Africa Rugby World Cup final, someone had found out the score. It was fitting that we had just listened to such a fine Requiem.

JOSEPH HAYDN: THE SEASONS. ST MARY’S CHURCH, KINGTON 7.30pm, Saturday, 16 June 2007.

Gemma Busfield, soprano; Michael Clee, tenor; Matthew Wright, baritone.

Ronnie Krippner, organ; Michael Channon, harpsichord.
Kington Choral Society. Maureen Twiddy, conductor.

Review for the Mid-Wales Journal by John Rushby-Smith.

Haydn’s oratorio The Seasons was written late in the composer’s life, when he was at the height of his powers. It followed his triumph with The Creation, and sets a text translated and adapted by his librettist Baron von Swieten from a long and wordy poem by the 18th century English poet James Thomson. The Seasons is essentially a secular celebration of the wonders of nature. It is a rustic romp that encompasses birdsong and thunderstorms, burgeoning crops and bountiful harvests, hunting expeditions and drunken revelry, all bathed in an occasional glow of reverential respect for a bountiful Creator that was grafted on to the original text mainly to keep the devout happy.

The story is told through the voices of its three characters, Jane (soprano), Lucas (tenor) and Simon (bass), and their enthusiasm for all things natural is reinforced by vivid choral writing that lifts the work on to a plane far higher than that suggested by the text, whose banalities Haydn rather disparaged.

The performance in Kington Parish Church under the direction of Maureen Twiddy was highly accomplished, with apt choice of tempi and laudable attention to detail. All three soloists displayed their vocal prowess with great aplomb and sensitive musicality. Gemma Busfield’s Jane was crystal clear, beautifully poised and vocally alluring; Michael Clee as Lucas was every inch the handsome rural swain and he produced some wonderful lyrical singing, while Matthew Wright as Simon was a suitably imposing master of seasonal ceremony and revealed a knack for telling his story with great clarity. In the recitatives, harpsichordist Michael Channon accompanied with elegant panache.

The obviously well-rehearsed Kington Choral Society brought gusto and praiseworthy precision to the complex choruses. Their diction was excellent and their intonation rarely faltered, the sopranos pinging out top B flats with commendable confidence. This was choral singing of a standard quite remarkable for a town as small as Kington. Their platform manner was disciplined, their appearance crisp. Conductor Maureen Twiddy had clearly got to grips with Haydn’s witty and dramatic score, and she displayed the telling yet economical command of the true musician she surely is. Guest organist Ronnie Krippner’s attempts to represent Haydn’s colourful, symphonic orchestration on the church’s instrument were less convincing, however, and sometimes left the singers without proper support. What a pity the Society’s budget denied us the pleasure of hearing what they might have achieved had they been able to afford an orchestra. That small caveat apart, it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

Bravo all!