Three Spires Concert Saturday 8th July 2023: Bach Cantata no 80, Ein Feste Burg, Mozart Clarinet Concerto & Scarlatti St Cecilia Mass
While the Three Spires Singers have always striven to
feature top class soloists, the concert on 8th July of works by
Scarlatti, Mozart and Bach surpassed itself with a particular wealth of young
talent: Jacob Perry performing the solo part in Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto,
with Katherine Gregory, Hannah Dienes-Williams, Tom Lilburn, Louis Watkins and
Simon Grant fronting the choir and orchestra for Scarlatti’s St Cecilia Mass
and Bach’s Cantata no. 80, Ein Feste Burg.
Taking the podium for the first time, guest conductor
Patrick Bailey steered the ship with clarity and authority. Though the
programme had been decided in advance by Christopher Gray before his departure,
Patrick embraced the repertoire with enthusiasm and vision both in performance
and during the course of choir and orchestral rehearsals.
The concert opened with the Bach Cantata. At once Patrick stamped
his mark on proceedings with some unorthodox performer choreography. After the
choir’s opening chorus, bass soloist Simon Grant adopted his standard position
to the front left of the conductor for the ensuing duet while soprano Katherine
Gregory’s divine voice emerged unseen from behind the string section, her
presence only revealed via the TV monitor. She then processed forward through
the players for the recitative that followed.
Orchestral forces were stripped back for this work to
chamber size, ably supported by basso continuo of solo cello (Danielle Jones)
and chamber organ and harpsichord (Paul Comeau). Other chamber groupings
followed: solo violin (leader Philip Montgomery-Smith) and oboe (Tamsin
Robinson) joining alto Tom Lilburn and tenor Louis Watkins for the duet ‘Wie
selig sind doch sie’. The choreography again worked its magic here - Tamsin
somehow appearing at the leader’s side before slipping away again for the final
chorale.
All singers gave strong performances in this piece, with
well controlled phrasing, pristine vibrato and razor-sharp diction. The male alto
occasionally struggled to balance the more penetrating tenor voice and the bass
could not quite achieve the expressive levels of his fellow singers. The
outstanding voice among the group, Katherine Gregory seemed totally attuned
both to the Baroque style and to the acoustics and scale of the building. The
choir took a moment to settle into the work, but easily cut through the reduced
orchestral forces, though the difficult acoustic tended to leave them slightly
behind the beat for much of the time, something that in the past Christopher
Gray had largely managed to address.
Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A Major completed the first
half of the evening. Soloist Jacob Perry gave an exceptional performance, his
tone full and rounded, his entries perfectly controlled and his phrasing deeply
considered and artfully rendered. Music, soloist, orchestra and space united
here to produce a magical experience. Perry clearly took the utmost delight in
live playing, his presence at times verging on the theatrical as his
expressions captured every nuance of the music, both when playing and when
awaiting his next entry. In response, the orchestra gave an assured performance
of this no doubt tried, tested and much-loved work.
The concert’s second half was taken up with just one work,
Alessandro Scarlatti’s little known St Cecilia Mass. This is arguably a somewhat
problematic piece, with few opportunities for the choir to engage in any
extended singing and little in the way of memorable material or dynamic
contrast. Patrick Bailey managed nonetheless to bring a sense of excitement to
the work by pushing the tempi changes and emphasising the shifts of texture. It
also introduced us to the last of the soloists: second soprano Hannah
Dienes-Williams. Her voice was characterful, though less powerful than that of fellow
soprano Katherine Gregory, the balance therefore working better when she had
the top line. Tom Lilburn’s alto voice sat much more comfortably within this work’s
five-part voicing than within the four-part Bach; it worked especially well
when set simply against cello. The first chance the choir had to shine came at
the close of the Gloria with the ‘Cum Sancto Spiritu’. From here, the work
passes through some intricate interchanges between the soloists in the Credo,
leading to an angelic, beautifully sung choir Amen before the Sanctus. For many
composers, the Sanctus, like the Gloria before it, is an opportunity to add
weight and brilliance to a scoring of the mass. For Scarlatti, it becomes more
a continued winding down towards the closing Agnus Dei, giving a quiet,
considered close to the evening’s music-making.
Patrick Bailey now passes the baton over to new Musical
Director James Anderson-Besant, who will present more Mozart and Bach over the
coming months, the next Three Spires concert being on Saturday 18th
November with Bach’s Magnificat and Mozart’s Horn Concerto and Requiem.
Chris
Best 28/07/23
Chris Best is a Cornwall based
composer and writer. More information can be found at www.chrisbestmusic.com
