A Season to Sing
No two concerts by the SPS are the same, which may be one reason why so many visitors were drawn to A Season to Sing in Bournville’s beautiful St Francis’ Church on June 14th. The concert marked not only the church’s centenary but also three hundred years since Vivaldi composed The Four Seasons.
This Birmingham premiere of a choral reimagining of Vivaldi’s work turned out to be a great joy. The composer, Joanna Forbes L’Estrange, made it seem completely natural that this well known music should be sung by voices as well as played by instruments. In this case the instrumental accompaniment was the organ, played with great assurance by the talented young Welshman, Thomas Howell.
This Birmingham premiere of a choral reimagining of Vivaldi’s work turned out to be a great joy
The work is prefaced with organ and choir in a setting of words from Ecclesiastes, ‘To everything there is a season.’ The words that have been chosen are often strikingly enhanced by the music, or perhaps it’s the other way round. In the opening ‘Welcome Spring’ the images of birds, flowers, rain, lovers sprang out with delightfully fresh impact. By contrast I found the next piece, ‘ Music, Sweet Music’, rather too complex and densely packed to have the same effect.
There is such witty variety in this work: the bagpipe drone in ‘To the Bagpipes sound’, the use of unexpected pauses in ‘Sing Cuccu’, the startling impression of hailstones falling being produced wordlessly by the choir using their own bodies as percussion instruments.
At half time, between Summer and Autumn, Thomas Howell played, appropriately and beautifully, Bach’s Concerto in A Minor. The work had itself been inspired by a composition for two violins by Vivaldi.
There was a continuing variety of approach in Autumn and Winter: the a cappella introduction to ‘Song of Harvest’, the gentle sense of falling leaves accompanying Emily Bronte’s poem, the joyous hymn of praise using words from the psalms. Then came the insistent rhythm of ‘Winter Freeze’ set to Vivaldi’s own Italian sonnet. By contrast again we enjoyed cheerful light relief in the Swingle style ‘ Cosy Indoors’. The whole work culminates in ‘A Time of Peace’, a deep reflection inspired again by words from Ecclesiastes as well as the Requiem Mass.
I didn’t know what to expect from this concert, but I came away with heightened senses…by words which made you newly aware of the familiar music, and also of the infinite variety of ways in which words and music together can illuminate the human experience.
SPS are most fortunate in having Paul Carr as their Musical Director. He clearly commands both affection and respect and continues to challenge the Choir with new and often difficult music.
August 9th is a day to look forward to when Joanna Forbes L’Estrange herself will be leading a workshop open to all called ‘Come and Sing’.
Anne Waugh