Originally posted 16th
July 2014 here. Moved to this blog with slight continuity edits
as part of the creation of a music-only blog in October 2014.
Crouch End Festival Chorus Tallis and Others at Southwark Cathedral
Bit of a last minute one for me this – having had a Voxcetera
rehearsal cancelled at the last minute, I Facebooked something like “A free
evening – what am I going to do?”, and this was suggested. The lead piece was
Tallis’s Spem in Alium*.Which is in 40 parts – 8 five part choirs.
Also performed, in an entirely unaccompanied programme was the
Vaughan Williams G Minor mass, some Bruckner, a rendering of the Buddy Holly
song “It doesn't matter anymore” by Orlando Gough and the premier of a “Salve
Regina” by Hughes.
Crouch End is a very high quality choir, and I was impressed by
what they did. I didn't quite 'get' the Buddy Holly thing, but liked the Salve.
Vaughan –W is what it is. Which leaves the Tallis. I was near enough the front
to have the choirs wrapped around me, so I got a placing effect in the music
that you would miss from the back. And it was clever. But it left me feeling
that it was done in 40 parts to impress, and that perhaps that got in the way
of the music a little. Not my favourite.
*I know it’s silly, but Spem in Alium still sounds like a dish from a menu in a Monty Python sketch to me
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