BY ANDREW MESSENGER
Choir of King’s College Cambridge
Works by various composers
QPAC Concert Hall, Brisbane, 29 July 2014
Here is a list of things the Choir of King’s College Cambridge is older than:
The Australian state.
All forms of Protestantism.
Science.
Modern English.
Indeed, at a spry 573 years, the choir is older than all modern music. None of the music they performed in Brisbane is as old as they are. This choir is a tradition that has outlived the renaissance, the baroque, classical and romantic artistic periods, has just kept chugging along as mere newcomers like the Romanov, Stuart, and Habsburg dynasties emerged, flourished and then eventually ended. So did the State of Prussia, Imperialism, the gold standard, capitalism. Members of the choir were singing hundreds of years before Bach wrote his first note. It is no exaggeration to say that this is one of the longest traditions anywhere, ever, in history.
History has nothing to do with their present ability, of course, but I thought their unbelievable power of endurance it was worth a mention. Maybe even some applause.
Musical director Stephen Cleobury is also something of an institution. He’s run the choir for a good 30 years and he has firmly affixed his stamp on the institution. It’s a strange thing; almost nobody in the choir seemed to watch him with any real intensity or interest. By the way, Cleobury’s job must be about the hardest in the world. It’s part traffic control, part school-teacher and part Simon Rattle. Not only must he interpret the music, and teach it and run rehearsals, he has to constantly rebuild and maintain the instrument he works with. The choir must have pretty fierce turnover. At times, younger members of the choir looked almost bored. Yet, not one note ever in any of hundreds of chords was flat or sharp or early or late or too loud or too soft. I defy any of the other witnesses of this outright miracle to tell me the chord that was a little off. If there was one, I didn’t hear it.
A reminder: half the choir are children of 10 or 11 years of age. That’s likely why they had trouble maintaining attention. But they have to be this age, or else their voice would have matured. These days, you have to get them young. The musicality and technique revealed through voices so young was pretty astounding. What a choir. You get a very particular tone in the well-trained voice of a 12-year-old boy – it’s pure, it’s total. It is a world of its own.
As to the repertoire, it was quite effective programming. Chronologically spanning centuries, the concert began with Parry’s ‘Hear My Words, Ye People’ and the first half ended with Britten’s spectacular ‘Hymn to Saint Cecilia’. Byrd and Palestrina also made an appearance, though Britten’s was the best suited to the choir. There was also a trio of Australian compositions, all written for the King’s College’s famous Nine Lessons and Carols. To my taste, Carl Vine’s ‘Ring Out Wild Bells’ (only two years old) went down best, though Brett Dean’s ‘Now Come the Dawn’ (2007) was also quite beautiful – pretty and still and calm like a lake is. Sculthorpe’s ‘Birthday of Thy King’ (1988) felt unusually dissonant in the context. Without doubt, the centrepiece of the concert was their performance of the entire (!) Faure’s gorgeous ‘Requiem’. It’s a massive work and it was a massive achievement.
Aside from the boy trebles, there are also another 14 men of tenor and bass age – and a duet of organ scholars. The QPAC organ, which is a majestic and pretty colossal thing, has rarely sounded as good. The last movement of Faure’s ‘Requiem’ (in paradisum) was particularly lovely, I thought. There were a few solos for the mature voices which went down dreadfully well, including a bass soloist who I particularly admired. He might be as old as 20, and he already has the broad vocal range and rich tone of a man well beyond his years. His solo in ‘Hear My Words, Ye People’ was particularly impressive.
Musica Viva, which is responsible for their tour, has a lot to be proud of. Aside from the feature concerts, they’ve tried to provide as many complementary events as possible. I sang in the choir of a Brisbane conducting masterclass and it was both enjoyable and educational. I strongly recommend any of their extra events to anyone with the money and the time. Spoiled we may be by all this choral brilliance, but take the opportunity before it flies away, as it inevitably will.
The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge is on national tour with Musica Viva until 2 August.
Image supplied. Credit: Keith Saunders.
