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June 2017 Concerts - Victor Harbor & Mt Barker

 2017 saw the choir deliver three concerts - two in Mt. Barker, and one in Victor Harbor.

Our mid-year concerts were moved from their traditional July dates back into June. This move created more balance in the rehearsal scheduling, bringing the number of rehearsals for each program much closer to parity. The benefit of this was felt at the end of the year, where my usual sense of blind panic at being totally underprepared to present ourselves publicly was largely mitigated by the extra rehearsals available in the schedule.

Our first concert for the year was held at Victor Harbor, the Emerald of the South Coast, where people go to have a whale of a time. The same program was then repeated a week later in Mt. Barker, to an audience perhaps three times the size of the one at the Victor concert.

The choir was joined by a trio of instrumentalists - Charles Klein and Hannah Kovilpillai on oboe, and Margaret Carney on cello. Handel’s majestic Coronation Anthem “Zadok the Priest” opened our program for the year; and its mighty choral opening would surely have thrilled the Westminster Abbey audience at King George the Second’s coronation as much as it has thrilled untold thousands ever since. With such works is the uplifting joy of choral music embedded in our hearts. The trio of instrumentalists added great colour and verve to the performances.

Continuing with Mr. Handel, the choir performed the famous aria ‘Lascia chi’io pianga’, in an arrangement for SATB choir by some obscure local musician or other. ‘Let me weep’ is the translation; and the choir held the audience in thrall as Almirena’s grief washed over them through the medium of Handel’s beautiful melodic lines.

Our final Handel offering was the chorus called ‘How strange their ends’, from his oratorio ‘Theodora’. We were joined again by our guest trio of players; the choir played their role of musical heathens very affectingly; and, accordingly, the two Christian martyrs would have died with expressions of even greater joy than those required by the librettist.

Following this minor Handel binge, our three instrumentalists played a delightful trio by the Baroque composer, and contemporary of Handel, Johann Friedrich Fasch. They played the five short movements with energy, fine tuning, delightful tone and ensemble, sensitive Baroque ornamentation, and general enthusiasm. They then repeated the dose in Mt. Barker. Their presence was a great addition to the colour and interest of the program.

The choir’s second bracket consisted of three Scottish folk songs.

‘Loch Lomond’ is surely one of the most beautiful and expressive of all folk tunes; and, coupled with the sad story of the condemned prisoner who will never see his lady-love or his Scottish homeland again, at least in this life, it is a poignant and heart-rending song. Indeed, some in the audience did seem to have their hearts rent, judging by the tears, and a few in the choir as well. It was a fine testimony to the choir’s emotional involvement and expressive power that such a response was achieved.

This was followed by the ‘Iona Boat Song’ – a paean to one of the Scottish kings of old, who, having died, is being rowed across the strait from Mull to Iona for interment in the burial ground there. The pain of grief is here more muted, and the emphasis is on the stately dignity of the royal funeral; but, while the grief is subdued, it is ever-present. From the heave of the oarsmen, to the wailing of the bereaved subjects, to the grandeur of the occasion, the choir once again seized the mood and intent of the music, and sang it with great power and affect.

All is not gloom, however, in the land of bagpipes, haggis, tossing the caber, and endless rain. We finished the Scottish bracket with a short, fast, and light-hearted little piece called ‘Gretna Green’. Stumpie absconds with his employer’s daughter, and they are married overnight in Gretna Green. Her parents are furious. Even in Scotland, as in most of the rest of the world, parents disapprove of their children’s choices. Stumpie and his new missus don’t mind. They’re too busy drinking and dancing on Gretna Green. The choir seemed to sing this with an extra level of enthusiasm. Perhaps we all revelled in reclaiming our childhoods from parental oppression.

After the interval, Charles Klein produced his cor anglais – that magical lower-pitched relative of the oboe. His deeply-expressive interpretation of the Mozart Adagio KV 580A had the audience spellbound. He then swapped the cor anglais for his oboe, and joined the choir for John Rutter’s ever-popular and beautiful setting of the 23rd Psalm. The combination of choir and oboe was deeply affecting, and the audience were duly appreciative.

Finally, the choir sang a cycle of three songs – ‘Songs for Cecilia’ – written by me for them way back in 2002. As a composer, I am always delighted when performers take my work seriously, and apply themselves to learning the music, performing it, and projecting their emotional involvement with it to the audience with conviction and professionalism. Blake’s ‘Laughing Song’ raised some chuckles, Arnold’s ‘Requiescat’ established a profound mood of lament, and Tennyson’s uplifting ‘Crossing the Bar’ gave a rousing end to both concerts.

I was delighted with the contribution of our three Guest Artists to the program, and equally delighted with the fine playing of our new accompanist, Brenna Mackay. All in all, the mid-year concerts were a resounding success.

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