St. Matthew Passion

Right, let's get back to positive stuff :-)

Thursday night was the Bach gig, and it was great, whatever some of the reviewers might have thought (what do they know? One of them didn't even notice we were singing in English!) I went front of house during the interval to look for my mum, who'd only decided a couple of hours previously to come to the concert (probably because she was feeling guilty because I pointed out that although she goes to lots of concerts, she never seems to make it to ones I'm in!) so I didn't know where she was sitting. While I was searching, I overheard someone say "well, they certainly made it convincing!" and when I did find my mum, she was talking to the head of music from a local school, who said it was the "most beautiful thing he'd ever heard".

The audience certainly seemed to love it, and I thought it was fabulous. Only a few reviews so far, although I suspect some of them went to a different concert.... Anyway, the Manchester Evening News liked it, although I do agree with Robert Beale about the audience spoiling the silence at the end - I do wish there wasn't always someone who insists on doing that! The Guardian was less impressed, as was the Times (although I liked that review better, mainly because he said he was "startled by the focus of the choir, who turned up in large enough forces to invade a small country but never drowned the storytelling or smothered the musical lines").

I have an urge to list my favourite bits, mainly because I can't quite decide which is my ABSOLUTE favourite bit. So, in chronological order (and apologies to those people who don't have their own scores so can't look up the page numbers) (which refer to the New Novello Choral Edition)...

Movement 1 (Come, ye daughters):
• page 2, bar 16 - first Neapolitan 6th of the work (there are many, many more, but I won't bore you by listing them!)
• page 4, bar 26 - first entry of choir 2 (I overheard a conversation in the toilets that amused me greatly - a woman was saying "I never know what look I'm supposed to have on my face when I'm saying 'Where?'" and someone else said "Just look like you always do - a bit confused!" I suspect I've paraphrased a bit, but you get the gist...)
• page 6, bar 29 - first entry of the ripieno singers (I was really impressed with the Youth Choir on Thursday - the last few times I've heard them, I've been disappointed at their tuning, but I couldn't fault it on Thursday)
• page 21, bar 82 - dominant pedal starts (I must explain this term properly sometime, but in the meantime see this post)
• page 22, bar 87 - bass moves off dominant pedal
• page 23, bar 89 - choir 2 enters ff for the final cadence

Movement 2 (When Jesus had finished)
• page 24, bar 3 - the strings enter for the first example of the running pattern that Jesus is always accompanied by sustained chords and no-one else is (in the recits)

Movement 7 (To what purpose is this waste)
• page 29, bar 6 - a fabulous chord on the last two beats of this bar ("ointment might have been sold"), mainly because it's so unexpected. The movement starts in A minor and finishes in D minor - what on earth is an Fm6 chord (or I suppose it could be considered a diminished chord, but it feels like Fm6 to me) doing in there?

Movement 10 (Grief for sin)
• page 34, bar 69 - I was really looking forward to this aria anyway, having learned it once for an exam - but I was so taken with the flutes in the middle section that I had tears in my eyes

Movement 23 (Here would I stand beside Thee - Passion Chorale version 2)
• page 53, bar 8 - I love all the versions of this chorale, but I particularly liked the way choir 2 did the line "then, then will I enfold thee"

Movement 33 (Behold, my Saviour -> Have lightning and thunder)
• page 88, bar 95 - antiphonal bits, I love them! ("Lightning (lightning), thunder (thunder)" etc.)
• page 90, bar 105 - ditto, I love this whole section too ("Then open, O bottomless pit")

Movement 35 (O man, thy heavy sin)
• page 110, bar 79 - alto section solo, "when he should be betrayed" - I had this bit on the brain ALL WEEK

Movement 38 (How falsely doth the world)
• page 122, bar 8 - "Lord, show thy power". Wow! (I heard part of someone else's performance on the way home, and it included this bit, but it just didn't have the power that our version of this bar did)

Movement 43 (And then with one accord -> now tell us)
• page 134, bars 9 and 10 - the sops had immense trouble getting this twiddly off-beat duet right when they were learning it, but they must have done their homework because it sounded amazing in the performance
• page 135, bars 11-13 - yes, that IS the whole page! I love it all! Antiphonal bits FTW. (If you know what FTW means without looking it up, you are as sad as me!)

Movement 47 (Have mercy, Lord (Erbarme dich) - alto aria)
• page 140, bars 1 and 2 etc. - it's the harmony I love in this one, mainly the descending bassline and the move to E minor at the end of the first bar. And add Alice Coote to that.... Mmmmmm

Movement 54 (Now, at that feast)
• page 158, bar 30 - BARRABAS! Need I say more?

Movement 58 (For love now my Saviour - soprano aria)
• page 162, bar 1 etc. - this was just so beautiful that I was spellbound. Carolyn Sampson was just perfect, but it was the three woodwind soloists that I loved

Movement 60 (All gracious God - alto recit)
• page 173, bar 1 - the very loud, almost raucous (deliberately so) playing of the strings here really took me by surprise at first, until I noticed the words they were accompanying. Very effective

Movement 63 (O sacred head surrounded)
• page 182, bar 16 - Passion Chorale again, but I loved it even more when we were asked to do verse 2 a cappella.

Movement 67 (When they were come unto a place)
• page 194, bar 33 etc. - I was really getting into my acting, and I particularly liked the instruction to sing this bit sarcastically ("save Thyself - if Thou be the Son of God, come down")

Movement 72 (Be near me, Lord, when dying)
• page 211, bar 1 - I hadn't realised at first that this came immediately after Jesus died, and it was all very emotional. But I always like bits we've memorized, anyway

Movement 73 (And then, behold, the veil of the temple)
• page 211, bar 1 - the orchestral effects in this one are amazing!
• page 213, bar 19 - "Truly, this was the Son of God" - I couldn't help but think of John Wayne, but this bit was absolutely beautiful anyway

Movement 77 (And now the Lord to rest is laid -> Lord Jesu, fare Thee well)
• page 231, bar 2 - this is the movement that made me wish I was in choir 2 instead of choir 1.

Movement 78 (We bow our heads)
• page 247, bar 128 - the last chord. We don't often get to finish on a nice low note, so this was great

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Right, I've decided on my top 5 :-) I'd be interested to hear who shares them...

5. Who's he - he that smote
4. Lightning/thunder (antiphonal bit)
3. Lord, show thy power
2. Alto bit at end of 1st half - "when he...."
1. BARRABAS!


Next - Hamilton Harty! I'm looking forward to doing a totally new piece (well, it's new to US, and I suspect to most people). It's The Mystic Trumpeter (words by Walt Whitman) and I have bad news for the people who have asked if I've got a recording ready to share with you - as far as I can ascertain, it's never been recorded! I'll see if I can think of a way round this problem (although if anyone DOES have a recording of it, I'd be very grateful to hear about it - just don't get confused with the Holst version, which HAS been recorded many times).

In the meantime, you could have a look at these four pages - page 1, page 2, page 3 and page 4. This was the sight reading from our last vocal assessments, and if you're wondering why I took photos of it, it was because I was intrigued about what piece it might be (they didn't tell us at the time). I managed to discover what the words were from, but at the time I assumed it was the Holst version because I didn't see any other version mentioned anywhere. (And no, I didn't cheat - I didn't see the sight reading before my assessment, I took the photos while I was in the practice room when I'd just been given it. I don't need to cheat on sight reading, it's the only thing I'm good at!)

And finally, a load of random links I've been saving till I had time to post them. (Some were sent to me - thanks to those who sent them, you know who you are!)

My current favourite cartoon.

Cello Challenge game from the Berlin Phil website. It's quite hard, and if you don't know The Swan very well, I imagine it's probably impossible!

Guardian article about different views of Bach's Passions. (If you're interested in this sort of thing, I recommend reading The Essential Bach Choir.) And a Telegraph article about the enduring appeal of the Passions.

Review of the Bach Choir doing the St. Matthew Passion recently. The reviewer seemed to like it even less than he liked ours, although he gave us both three stars (yes, it is the same reviewer). I think this must be the review that was mentioned in a recent rehearsal.

Remember I mentioned going to see the Monkey Opera during last year's Manchester International Festival? Well, it's coming to the Royal Opera House in July, so if you missed it, you could pop down there. I recommend it. (Assuming of course that you approach it in the correct spirit - the only negative review I saw at the time was from a reviewer who compared it to traditional classical operas, which it doesn't claim to be. I did like the music, but what's impressive about it is the SPECTACLE. So don't worry about the fact that it's in Mandarin Chinese and the subtitles are hard to see!) More info at BBC Music Magazine, Londonist and Bloomberg.

Nigel Kennedy ranted about conductors in the Telegraph, and the Guardian responded with an excellent counterexample :-)

I've written most of this while listening to last night's concert by The Sixteen. Not sure if it will be repeated (and it doesn't seem to be on the iPlayer) but you should watch it if it is. It includes Komm, Jesu, Komm, and other things we've sung too. It's part of the Sacred Music season, which I must admit didn't really grab me in episode one, but maybe it will get more interesting. (I saw the Sixteen at the Bridgewater Hall recently, and while they were very good, I was totally distracted by the fact that there were more than sixteen of them! What's that about?!?)

Another Guardian article, this time about MonteVerdi TV, which looks great, although I haven't had time to explore it properly yet. If anyone finds anything unmissable on there, please let us know!

Interesting thing on From the Front of the Choir about ladies being tenors. I was just saying to Alison the other day that we hadn't been asked to be tenors (at least, not for our main choir) for years. I'm a bit sad about this - if we did the Berlioz Requiem now, I guess we'd all be forced to sing the soprano part (ouch!) (for those who don't know, there is no alto part in that piece, so when we did it the altos were given the choice of soprano or tenor). And if we did Billy Budd now, I guess we wouldn't be in it at all.

Not directly choir-related, but it seems there's a new earpiece device to help stammerers, and it works by using a "choral effect"! Fascinating.

Not choir-related at all: I'm sure you all know that Sir Arthur C. Clarke died last week. If you're one of those people who remembers reading some of his stuff but can't remember what it was, try this - his best (IMHO) short story: The Nine Billion Names of God.

For geeks of a certain age only: I bet you remember playing a text-based computer adventure game called, erm, Adventure in the early 80s. (If the phrase "You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike" is very familiar, this is where you probably know it from.) Anyway, there's a Mac version to download. Oh, the memories!

And finally, if you're a football fan who has developed headaches trying to work out which teams might qualify for Europe next season, there's a helpful BBC website that attempts to explain. (In the office where I'm currently temping, we thought we had it worked out, until we found that it will all change if Cardiff win the FA Cup - which they might! - and now we're confused again.)