Easter Oratorio-Another Mary Wakefield Westmorland Festival Triumph Kendal has established a firm reputation for exciting, original and innovative choral concerts.This reputation was triumphantly confirmed this week with a performance of “Easter Oratorio” in Kendal Parish Church.A very full audience, including the composer, Paul Spicer, was treated to this extended work very confidently performed by the MWWF Chorus along with three youth choirs, four soloists and the Northern Chamber Orchestra, conducted by David Lawrence.
The idea of writing the piece arose 13 years ago, when Bishop Tom Wright was Dean of Lichfield and Paul Spicer was also based there.They had investigated the idea of commissioning a piece for the Millennium Lichfield International Arts Festival.Having discovered that such a commission was far beyond their financial means, they decided to do it themselves.Tom Wright drew up the libretto, using texts from his own translation of St John's Gospel, and also writing much original material.Paul Spicer then set this libretto to music.
The thinking was that there were many settings of the Passion story, but these all stop after the Crucifixion.This piece begins with the body of Jesus Christ in the tomb.It takes the listener through the resurrection story and the resurrection appearances.Interspersed through the performance are six Easter hymns for all the audience to join in.Before the performance began, there was a short rehearsal to ensure that the audience would indeed be able to join in with suitable energy and enthusiasm, which indeed they did.Five of the six hymns are well-known.The sixth is a new composition, text and tune.This was taken up by everybody with great energy and it deserves to become a standard part of Easter services.(It has already been published separately.)
A feature of the “Easter Oratorio”, compared with the great Passion settings of Bach and others, is that there is proportionately more for the choirs to do, and the various recitatives and arias for the soloists are comparatively short.This has clearly paid off.Reports from choir members of recent months as rehearsals progressed have told of huge enjoyment and a great variety of very satisfying music to work on.Paul Spicer is in the 20th-century mould of English composers going back(according to Spicer himself) to C H H Parry, and tracing a line through Vaughan Williams, Gerald Finzi and Herbert Howells.The music is satisfyingly melodic, but by no means merely copying the earlier composers, and the harmonies are original and refreshing.There is nothing to put off the listener but plenty to arouse his interest.Both librettist and composer have very strong voices of their own, and we would hope to hear a lot more of them.
The performance went with great enthusiasm.Having in mind the relatively small amount of time that all the forces had together, the coordination was exceptionally good.The soloists are all well-known in this area.Rachel Little (soprano) sang the role of Mary.Her 'Rabboni', at the point when she first recognised the risen Christ, was heart-rending.Nicholas Hurndall Smith, as the Evangelist, played his part as 'anchor-man' to perfection.David Douglas (tenor) sang the roles of Doubting Thomas and Simon Peter, and John Lofthouse (baritone) sang the role of Jesus.It was noteworthy that all the soloists had clearly done a great deal of homework.Given a piece which they had probably never seen or heard before, they projected their music and their words with great confidence.It might perhaps be observed that David Douglas has a slight tendency to 'swallow' his words: a more front-of-the-mouth projection would have fitted in better with the other soloists.
The three local youth choirs - Amabile, Millennium and Amici-sang with great confidence and commitment but the bulk of the choral work was given to the Festival Chorus (trained by Ian Jones with Mary Powney as rehearsal accompanist).They clearly enjoyed the whole enterprise.It is perhaps unfortunate that the layout of the church and the size of the orchestra made for an slight imbalance, so that at times the chorus was rather in the background.The Northern Chamber Orchestra played with the professionalism that one expects of the best British orchestras, but also with complete conviction.In both solo sections and ensemble sections, all played their part.Kendal Parish Church is fortunate in having two organs.The smaller one, at the east end with the rest of the performers, was played by Hugh Davies and provided continuo support without being at all overbearing.The large west-end organ, played by Ian Pattinson, joined in the six great Easter hymns, providing all that could be wanted for congregational support.
David Lawrence, as conductor, held the whole performance together, shaping and pacing and phrasing the lines to perfection.Quite a challenge, with the composer sitting in the audience behind him!
The day after the concert, certain things stand out.That wonderful new Easter hymn, and certain phrases in the text such as:“The price of peace is carved upon his hands/And in his side”, and the idea of mankind as “Sails for the Spirit's breath”.
We look forward to the next choral project in Kendal, and to the next works of Tom Wright and Paul Spicer.
