'Fitting tribute to choral music of a great composer' - 10.08.07

[Concert Review: Harrogate International Music Festival, St Wilfrid’s Church] Paul Dyson, Harrogate Advertiser

Having performed so magnificently in the two previous festivals, Tenebrae came into this event with an outstanding reputation. Their exclusively a capella singing, combined with imaginative use of the several spaces that can accommodate a choir in St Wilfrid’s Church, had left a deep impression on its audiences.

Their 2007 concert, however, was different; of the seven choral pieces performed, only two were unaccompanied and only one was performed away from the area in front of the choir screen.

Tenebrae, imaginatively directed by Nigel Short, is a flexible ensemble, in many ways, and this year’s three additional singers, making 15, were needed to compete with the organ accompaniment provided by Roger Sayer. The balance between the forces was not ideal at times but this depended on where one was seated. This writer, having positioned himself near the front for the first half, exchanged places for a seat near the back and from there the balance was excellent.

In keeping with the main theme of this year’s festival, the overwhelming majority of the concert was devoted to the music of Elgar. A collection of six anthems and part-songs, together with an early motet sung as an encore, effectively displayed the stylistic range of the composer’s choral output.

Give unto the Lord provided an arresting opening and the group sang with an appropriately strident tone in making a very powerful sound. Seek him that maketh the seven stars was performed by the seven members of the tenor and bass sections, who despite their number, displayed a wide range of dynamics and included a reflective tenor solo.

Sayer then performed the first of two organ solos – an arrangement of Imperial March. After the profundity of the first two pieces, the opening sounded a little trivial but the magnificence of the loudest passages made for a most convincing performance. This instrument also made an impact in The Spirit of the Lord from The Apostles with its disconcertingly throbbing-and-vibrating very lowest notes.

This aided the mystery of the choir’s opening passage and the piece also featured some very challenging unison singing, which was not without a slight blemish. A sublime and moving performance of They Are At Rest (unaccompanied) was followed, to conclude the first half, by the concert’s only non-Elgar piece – Howells’s Take Him Earth For Cherishing. This received a most dramatic interpretation as the slow section was allowed to benefit from the complementary acoustics and the faster section created a quite severe intensity before the final unusual and unexpected cadence.

The second half began with There Is Sweet Music and, the organ not being required, was performed from the back of the nave, producing a most effective contrast, the experience feeling as though the whole of the west end of the building was being filled with a wonderfully full and rich choral sound.

The Organ Sonata was outstandingly well-contrasted with the use of some imaginative registrations as Sayer displayed a considerable fluidity of technique.

In the final piece, Great Is The Lord, the voices soared beautifully over the organ and, together with the unscheduled performance of the setting of Ave Verum Corpus, was a most suitable way to end this fine tribute to Elgar and his choral music.