Bob Chilcott’s The Offended Planet on the Three Choirs Festiva – Seen and Heard Worldwide

United Kingdom Three Choirs Pageant [5] – Whitacre, Stanford, Mealor, Chilcott: Florence Value (soprano), Three Cathedral Choirs / Samuel Hudson (conductor). Worcester Cathedral, 1.8.2024. (JQ)

Eric Whitacre – Lux aurumque
Stanford – The Bluebird (from Op.119)
Paul Mealor – Ringed with the Azure World (4 Madrigals on Birds) (Pageant fee, premiere)
Stanford – Three Motets, Op.38
Bob Chilcott – The Offended Planet. An Environmental Cantata (2012)

Every year, the Three Cathedral Choirs unite to carry out a serious live performance on the Three Choirs Pageant. This 12 months, beneath the path of Samuel Hudson, they supplied a night of a cappella works, most of which fitted in with the idea of the pure world, which is a key theme on the Pageant this 12 months.

They started with Eric Whitacre’s Lux aurumque. This, I believed, supplied an early and wonderful instance of the way in which the mixed choirs – some sixty voices in all – blended. Whitacre’s music was very effectively sung and Hudson formed the piece effectively. Stanford’s beautiful half track, The Bluebird (1910) has a significant high soprano line; tonight, this was delivered by native singer Florence Value. She is a former chorister at Worcester Cathedral and I realized from the programme biography that she has been supplied a spot to learn music with a choral scholarship at Trinity Faculty, Cambridge. Will probably be a beautiful expertise for her to sing with that wonderful choir and on the proof of what we heard tonight, I’m not shocked Trinity Faculty need her. She sang her half within the Stanford with pure tone and readability. She was positioned proper on the high of the choir staging and when she was singing the melody line in verse 1, I puzzled if it may need been a greater thought if Hudson had positioned her a couple of rows additional down on the staging; she would nonetheless have been above the choir however her beautiful sound may need carried even higher down the nave. This was a wonderful efficiency by all involved of Stanford’s miniature masterpiece.

Subsequent got here the premiere of a Pageant fee: Ringed with the Azure World (4 Madrigals on Birds) by Paul Mealor, who was current for the efficiency. Mealor has chosen 4 poems with avian themes. First comes ‘The Eagle’ by Tennyson. Right here, Mealor’s sluggish, dark-hued music evokes very efficiently the brooding presence of the raptor as he surveys the ocean under, locates his prey and strikes. The subsequent poem is the nameless ‘The Silver Swan’. Once more, the music is darkish and sluggish, which isn’t inappropriate because the poet is describing a mute swan. When the chicken lastly finds its voice the trebles carol whereas the decrease voices proceed with their darkish, chordal music. ‘The Nightingale’ is one other nameless textual content. Mealor units this to swift, nimble music. A characteristic of the setting is cheeky little interpolations from a cuckoo; the one on the very finish of the piece provoked audible chuckles from the viewers. The concluding ‘The Blue Chicken’ makes use of the identical poem by Mary Elizabeth Coleridge which Stanford set; it was fascinating to match and distinction the approaches of the 2 composers. Mealor’s response to the poem is relatively solemn and darkish in colouration. In its personal means it’s spectacular however I can’t assist however surprise if it was Stanford who caught Coleridge’s temper higher; I missed mild and airiness in Mealor’s music. I favored a lot about Ringed with the Azure World, which appears to be effectively written for voices. If I’ve a criticism, it could be that three of the 4 settings have music which is predominantly sluggish and relatively dark-hued. I’m certain the composer can have been delighted by the assured first efficiency which Hudson and his mixed choir gave.

To shut the primary half, we returned to Stanford. His Three Motets might not be the obvious ‘match’ with the theme of the pure world however it’s all the time welcome to listen to these splendid items, whether or not individually or, as tonight, as a set. These motets are a lot sooner than The Bluebird; in his programme word, Jeremy Dibble instructed us that they in all probability date from the late Eighties. These items are meat and drink to cathedral choirs and I acquired that sense from the efficiency tonight. ‘Justorum animae’ flowed properly, although there was applicable energy within the singing of the motet’s center part. The Ascension motet ‘Cœlos ascendit hodie’ is a jubilant piece and I admired the superb assault within the choir’s singing. Lastly got here my private favorite, ‘Beati quorum by way of’. This can be a gem of a bit and I actually loved its efficiency by which all of the totally different vocal elements registered effectively; the ensemble was rather well balanced by Hudson.

After the interval got here a single work, Bob Chilcott’s The Offended Planet. This was commissioned by the Bach Choir; it was first carried out on the 2012 BBC Proms. Subsequently, in 2015, a studio recording was made, which was my introduction to the rating. The thought, together with the title and the involvement of younger singers, was David Hill’s. He proposed, in Chilcott’s phrases, a bit ‘with regards to the fragility of our world and on our have to respect and take care of the environment.’ This composition, lasting some 45 minutes, for unaccompanied choirs, is the outcome. For his libretto, Chilcott turned to his buddy and frequent collaborator, the poet Charles Bennett.

The construction of The Offended Planet is anxious with a forest at evening over a twelve-hour interval, starting at 6pm. The work’s 4 sections every relate to a three-hour section of time, although there isn’t a narrative of time passing; relatively, what Bennett does in his poems is to stimulate the listener to watch and mirror upon the forest at numerous factors within the evening. Really, we’re contemplating a threatened forest as a result of the first thrust of Bennett’s poems is the injury that man has completed and will proceed to do to the pure setting of the forest. This specific level is emphasised at a number of factors within the rating by the youth choir who ‘in an exaggerated spoken model’, as Chilcott describes it, enunciate the names of assorted animal species that are both prone to extinction or which have handed the purpose of no return. For this efficiency, a small group of choristers (junior choristers, I believe) acted because the youth choir. There have been 9 of those singers and each time they had been concerned, they got here onstage and stood in line in entrance of the remainder of the choir. They delivered their elements clearly, confidently and from reminiscence. It by no means ceases to amaze me that younger singers like these so usually participate in advanced choral works singing from reminiscence (whereas all us grownup singers use a rating). It’s not a lot the truth that they’ll commit the phrases and music to reminiscence however, much more impressively, entries and word values are spot on. That, I’m certain, was the case tonight and these 9 younger musicians did a first-class job.

Chilcott set 13 poems in The Offended Planet. The music is assorted and, I believe, suits effectively with the phrases. Those that know his music by means of his mellifluous Christmas items could also be shocked by the larger darkness and grit on this music however I believe that’s solely applicable to the subject material. He divides the principle choir (in different phrases, all of the singers other than the youth choir) into three totally different teams and makes use of a number of group for every poem; at occasions the complete ensemble comes collectively. That may be a good choice as a result of it produces number of texture, one thing one appreciates much more when one can see the efficiency.

It struck me tonight that The Offended Planet is one thing of a sluggish burner. I had the impression that Elements 1 and a pair of, although necessary, appear to put the bottom for Half 3. The music acquires larger depth in Half 3, and particularly in third and fourth poems in that part. ‘3am’, the penultimate setting in Half 3, is a sluggish, sorrowful episode; it’s an more and more intense elegy for the pure world. Considerably, the Latin phrases ‘Requiem æternam. Lux perPetua. Sempiternam requiem’ run like a vein all through the setting, these phrases set to chant-like music. This is without doubt one of the most transferring, memorable elements of the work. Within the setting which follows, ‘Sorry too late’ Bennett weaves into his poem some phrases from the Common Confession (E-book of Widespread Prayer). Chilcott units this specific poem to highly effective, pressing music.

Earlier within the piece we had one other alternative to listen to soloist Florence Value. In ‘Midnight’ she has the principal position – the supporting choral writing suggests, relatively successfully, deep evening. I believed she sang very effectively; her tone was clear and pure and he or she carried out confidently. Her voice carried effectively to my seat midway down the nave. Her contributions to this live performance had been fully assured.

The fourth and final part of The Offended Planet concludes with a poem entitled ‘Maybe’, by which all of the choirs be a part of. Right here, neither phrases nor music give us a ‘blissful ending’; that will be facile and too straightforward. Possibly, although, Chilcott and Bennett conclude on a word of cautious optimism.

The Offended Planet obtained an assured and efficient efficiency this night; I’m certain Bob Chilcott, who was current, was delighted. In contrast to the Stanford Motets, this isn’t the type of music – or material – that cathedral choirs will usually encounter. The lay clerks, who’re skilled singers, are extra seemingly to take action however not, maybe, the choristers. However, after all, younger musicians are so adaptable.

Once I first encountered the work on CD, again in 2015, I favored it (assessment right here). The efficiency now left me a bit extra considerate; I hasten to say that this under no circumstances pertains to the standard of what I heard. I ponder, nonetheless, if The Offended Planet is a bit an excessive amount of of a very good factor. It’s fairly prolonged – the efficiency took about 47 minutes – and that’s fairly a very long time for unaccompanied voices to maintain, although the Cathedral Choirs did so very effectively, by no means flagging in vitality or approach. It crossed my thoughts that some instrumental colouring may need been welcome however, having mentioned that, Chilcott’s skilful use of various choirs provides textural selection.

On reflection, I believe the problem is that an terrible lot of ideas are addressed on this work. Although the 2 items are very totally different in model there may be, I believe, some similarity with Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Mass for the Endangered, which I heard earlier within the week (assessment right here), in that the libretto is wordy and there may be relatively an excessive amount of of it (although Bennett’s poems per se are excellent and I a lot want them to the poems set within the Snider work). Maybe setting one poem much less in every part would have been useful. As we walked again to the automobile, I talked about what we had heard with my visitor, a really skilled beginner singer. She agreed with me and used the phrase ‘congested’, by which she meant that there have been too many phrases and concepts, resulting in relatively an excessive amount of music. I believe there’s rather a lot in that; there may be an excessive amount of packed into the rating. That mentioned, The Offended Planet and the performers had been warmly applauded by the viewers.

John Quinn