November 2005 - Britten's War Requiem
On the evening of Saturday 12th November we filled Kendal Parish Church to its capacity with combined choirs and orchestras of 230 performers and an audience of over 500. It was a powerful and moving performance.
Photographs
Review of the Concert written for the Westmorland Gazette by Hugh Davies
I finish writing this review having just watched a Channel 4 programme about the Battle of the Somme in which 19,000 young men died in a single day. In recent years, the writings of Pat Barker, Sebastian Faulkes and others have given us horrific insights into the horrors of the Great War. The tragedy and waste of conflict is well documented, and this last weekend we have, during church services and other ceremonies in Kendal and throughout the country, commemorated the fallen and prayed for peace. And yet, in spite of this, the waste of human life continues in a present disgraceful war which could prove to be unnecessary and possibly illegal. When will we ever learn the lessons of the past?
I suspect I was not alone in thinking these thoughts as I left Kendal Parish Church on November 12th after a performance of Britten’s War Requiem, an occasion which could not have been more timely. Britten, who was a committed pacifist, was given an unique opportunity to express his horror of war when he was commissioned to write a work to mark the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral, the previous Cathedral having been destroyed on November 14th 1940 during the longest air-raid attack ever sustained on a British city. Juxtaposing the 1st World War poems of Wilfred Owen and the Latin Requiem Mass, he created a moving condemnation of war and a plea for peace.
The War Requiem is a score of immense difficulty for singers and instrumentalists. Anyone who takes it on with mostly local musicians is either mad or very brave. On this occasion, Ian Jones’ bravery resulted in a performance which was a triumph of which he should be very proud indeed. He obviously had the score at his fingertips and steered the musicians through all its complexities with assurance and unfussy directness. Tempi were well judged and the chorus, give or take the occasional mis-pitching, was focussed, rhythmic, confident and vibrant. They and the soloists were well supported by the orchestras, which, apart from some unsure brass tuning in the main group and poor string ensemble at times in the chamber group, rose to the challenges wonderfully. The climaxes were spine-tingling, particularly in the Dies Iræ and the Sanctus.
Soprano soloist, Elizabeth Traill, was simply outstanding. Impeccably accurate, her voice soared effortlessly above the choral and orchestral textures. Her Lacrymosa solo was almost unbearably moving. Tenor Nicholas Hurndal Smith, too, gave an expressive and confident performance. John Lofthouse’s sonorous baritone had just the right colour needed for this role, so it was a pity that a couple of quite extensive passages were not sung at the correct pitch.
A youth choir, placed at a distance from the rest of the ensemble, is an important feature of this work and Lesley Talbot’s group of young singers from Queen Katherine’s School was superb. Their flawless singing, angelic and almost unearthly in its purity, added yet another wonderful dimension to this colourful score.
Without doubt, it was an astonishing achievement. The capacity audience delivered a well deserved and prolonged ovation.
This stupendous occasion prompts me to make one final comment. In Kendal Parish Church we have what is potentially one of the biggest and most beautiful spaces in the North West for public gathering. What a pity, therefore, that being so cluttered with inferior Victorian furniture, on this occasion the choir and orchestras had to be crammed in to the North East corner of the church while the audience, sitting on desperately uncomfortable pews were spread out diagonally across the rest of the church. A distinguished musician acquaintance, who sat in the South West corner said to me that it felt like listening to a recording played in another room. Next year the central chancel space will be cleared, the existing furnishings replaced with moveable fitments. This will more easily enable large scale performances to take place on the central axis of the church as well as having benefits for the church’s weekly liturgical needs. And dare we hope that, in time, the whole space might be cleared of this clutter and returned to its medieval splendour? Then the full potential of this amazing building could be fully realised.
I suspect I was not alone in thinking these thoughts as I left Kendal Parish Church on November 12th after a performance of Britten’s War Requiem, an occasion which could not have been more timely. Britten, who was a committed pacifist, was given an unique opportunity to express his horror of war when he was commissioned to write a work to mark the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral, the previous Cathedral having been destroyed on November 14th 1940 during the longest air-raid attack ever sustained on a British city. Juxtaposing the 1st World War poems of Wilfred Owen and the Latin Requiem Mass, he created a moving condemnation of war and a plea for peace.
The War Requiem is a score of immense difficulty for singers and instrumentalists. Anyone who takes it on with mostly local musicians is either mad or very brave. On this occasion, Ian Jones’ bravery resulted in a performance which was a triumph of which he should be very proud indeed. He obviously had the score at his fingertips and steered the musicians through all its complexities with assurance and unfussy directness. Tempi were well judged and the chorus, give or take the occasional mis-pitching, was focussed, rhythmic, confident and vibrant. They and the soloists were well supported by the orchestras, which, apart from some unsure brass tuning in the main group and poor string ensemble at times in the chamber group, rose to the challenges wonderfully. The climaxes were spine-tingling, particularly in the Dies Iræ and the Sanctus.
Soprano soloist, Elizabeth Traill, was simply outstanding. Impeccably accurate, her voice soared effortlessly above the choral and orchestral textures. Her Lacrymosa solo was almost unbearably moving. Tenor Nicholas Hurndal Smith, too, gave an expressive and confident performance. John Lofthouse’s sonorous baritone had just the right colour needed for this role, so it was a pity that a couple of quite extensive passages were not sung at the correct pitch.
A youth choir, placed at a distance from the rest of the ensemble, is an important feature of this work and Lesley Talbot’s group of young singers from Queen Katherine’s School was superb. Their flawless singing, angelic and almost unearthly in its purity, added yet another wonderful dimension to this colourful score.
Without doubt, it was an astonishing achievement. The capacity audience delivered a well deserved and prolonged ovation.
This stupendous occasion prompts me to make one final comment. In Kendal Parish Church we have what is potentially one of the biggest and most beautiful spaces in the North West for public gathering. What a pity, therefore, that being so cluttered with inferior Victorian furniture, on this occasion the choir and orchestras had to be crammed in to the North East corner of the church while the audience, sitting on desperately uncomfortable pews were spread out diagonally across the rest of the church. A distinguished musician acquaintance, who sat in the South West corner said to me that it felt like listening to a recording played in another room. Next year the central chancel space will be cleared, the existing furnishings replaced with moveable fitments. This will more easily enable large scale performances to take place on the central axis of the church as well as having benefits for the church’s weekly liturgical needs. And dare we hope that, in time, the whole space might be cleared of this clutter and returned to its medieval splendour? Then the full potential of this amazing building could be fully realised.