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Handel, Bach, Purcell, Vivaldi: Clare Lloyd, Ruth Jenkins (soprano), David Allsopp (countertenor), Edward Grint (bass), King’s College Choir, Cambridge, Florilegium, Stephen Cleobury, St. David’s Hall, Cardiff, 22.3.2009 (GPu)

Handel: Zadok the Priest
Bach: Lobet den Herrn
Handel: Ode to the Birthday of Queen Anne
Purcell: Rejoice in the Lord Alway
Purcell: My Beloved Spake
Vivaldi: Gloria


The only previous occasions on which I have heard the choir of King’s College, Cambridge sing ‘live’ have been in King’s College Chapel itself, as part of services there. Hearing them on the concert stage, in the distinctly secular environment of St. David’s Hall in Cardiff, in both a very different acoustic and (to put it mildly) in a very different architectural context, made for a radically different experience. Given, too, that now one was hearing the choir accompanied, not by the Chapel organ (now essentially an instrument of 1934, an enlargement and rebuilding by Harrison and Harrison) but by the excellent period-instrument ensemble Florilegium, then a good deal of adjustment of expectations was clearly called for. Maybe the musicians had to do some adjusting too; certainly the first half of their concert in Cardiff was mildly disappointing, the second half far more satisfying. Or – let’s be honest – it may have been that I was slow in making the necessary adjustments.

The opening performance of ‘Zadok the Priest’ lacked the full sense of splendour one has come to associate with the piece, and I had the feeling that the acoustic had taken the edge of brightness off both brass and voices. Some moments of slight imprecision of ensemble, when orchestra and choir were not absolutely at one, added to a somewhat unsettled and unsettling feel. This is, of course, to judge by the very highest standards and only to register that, at the opening of the concert, these performers didn’t fully attain the level of performance of which they are so obviously capable. But things began to improve immediately. The choir’s performance (accompanied by chamber organ) of Bach’s Lobet den Herrn (BWV 230) gave us the opportunity fully to enjoy the unique sound of the boy’s voices and the utterly distinctive beauty of tone achieved as those voices were expertly blended with the other youthful male voices. The tenors and basses of the choir were not only impressive in their own right, but gave an exemplary demonstration of how to balance their voices with those of the younger boys. This was a rhythmically assured performance (though one has heard interpretations with a rather greater spring in their step), the complex contrapuntal writing handled with that illusion of great ease achieved only by an experienced and confident choir. The fugal texture was simultaneously clear and dense, and the closing ‘Alleluia’ full of joyful gravity.

The first half of the concert closed with an enjoyable performance of Handel’s 1713 ‘Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne’. Orchestra and choir seemed now wholly at one, and seemed also to have come to terms with the acoustic of the hall. The Purcellian elements in Handel’s Ode were particularly evident here – how quickly, after only three years in London, Handel had acquired an understanding of the traditions and conventions of English ceremonial music. Stephen Cleobury’s judgement, and control, of tempo was excellent throughout. In the first section of the Ode, ‘Eternal Source of Light Divine’, countertenor David Allsopp (formerly a choral scholar and lay clerk of the King’s College Choir) made a slightly nervous start but once he had settled his interplay with the trumpet of Richard Fromison (at least I assume he was the soloist) was a delight, and the work of Florilegium’s continuo section played a significant role in Handel’s eloquent music of celebration and certainly helped to “add a lustre to this day” (to quote one of the better phrases from Ambrose Philips’ text).  In ‘Let All the Winged Race With Joy’, soprano Clare Lloyd (another Cambridge graduate – Gonville and Caius College this time – and currently studying at the Royal Academy in London) spun out some long lines attractively and handled some complex ornament with assurance (if not always with a sense of absolute ease). Allsopp was fully into his stride in ‘Let Flocks and Herds their Fear Forget’, singing with a winning expressiveness; here and elsewhere the strings of Florilegium played with a ravishing poetry of spirit, tender and strong at the same time. In ‘Let Rolling Streams their Gladness Show’, Allsopp was joined by bass Edward Grint (yet another graduate of King’s) in one of Handel’s best duets, very pleasantly sung (though there were moments when Grint was in danger of overpowering Allsopp’s countertenor). Grint was full of expression and accuracy in ‘Let Envy then Conceal her Head’, Handel’s writing, Grint’s singing and the strings of Florilegium all combining to evoke the implicitly serpentine imagery of Philips’ text and its many sibilants. In the final chorus Philips’ text is at its most inane and even Handel struggles to make one forget that inanity entirely, though here the choir’s contribution achieved the radiance it had been lacking at the beginning of the concert. With a team of young soloists, a very accomplished instrumental ensemble, and his own choir, Stephen Cleobury had put before us a very decent performance of a fascinating piece.

After the interval we returned to Purcell. And for this listener, at least, it was with the performances of two of Purcell’s loveliest pieces for voices and strings that the highlight of the evening arrived. In his anthem ‘Rejoice in the Lord Alway’, Allsopp and Grint were joined by one of the choir’s tenors, Joel Robinson. But the work begins, of course, with an introduction for the strings; full of radiance and glowingly played by Florilegium. The contrasts of mood in Purcell’s piece (some eight minutes long, but altogether grander than a mere measure of duration can imply) are considerable; Grint handled the darker, more supplicatory dimensions of ‘Be careful for nothing …’ very convincingly and the choir and the other soloists communicated real joy in the recapitulation of the richly affirmative ‘Rejoice in the Lord’ which closes the work. The second of these pieces for voices and strings was ‘My beloved spake’, one of Purcell’s earliest masterpieces, pretty certainly written while the composer was still in his teens. It’s a wonderful work, a setting of verses from The Song of Songs/The Song of Solomon, and well meriting a place on any list of the great musical works inspired by that particular book of the Old Testament. Here Purcell writes for a quartet of solo voices, and the three soloists who had sung in ‘Rejoice in the Lord Always’ were joined by Ashley Riches, one of the basses from the choir. The vocal blend was perfect, Florilegium’s strings at their seductive best. The whole was a gorgeous union of delicacy and strength – this performance alone would have been worth travelling some distance to hear.

The substantial work with which the programme closed was Vivaldi’s ‘Gloria’ (RV 589), which probably dates from very much the same time as the Birthday Ode by Handel which had closed the first half of the concert. Lost until the 1920s, this is a work full of contrasts, full of dramatic intensity and powerful emotional statement. It is, unmistakably, the work of a composer who was to become a master of opera (the ‘Gloria’ was probably written in the early years of Vivaldi’s career as a composer of opera), rather as Verdi’s Requiem smells of greasepaint at least as much as of ecclesiastical incense. In common with most English performances of Vivaldi’s sacred music this performance was relatively deficient in Italianate passion, in the unembarassedly histrionic. But within the terms of the ‘English’ tradition of the Italian baroque, this was a fine and subtle performance. There was a fair bite to the orchestral playing and the choir – especially in the more tender, quieter passages – often created exquisite effects; in some of the more extrovert sections one might, ideally, have liked just a bit more fire. In ‘Laudamus te’, Clare Lloyd was joined by Ruth Jenkins (another Cambridge graduate unsurprisingly – Jesus College this time, and another postgraduate student at the Royal Academy) in a duet sung with authority and precision, the two soprano voices beautifully matched and their lines interwoven with real beauty and sureness. The young voices of the choir were particularly attractive in ‘Gratias agimus tibi’ and the siciliano (‘Domine deus’) was sung with particular sensitivity and beauty by Lloyd; the solo oboe of (I presume) Hilary Stock here complementing the soloist in altogether admirable fashion. David Allsop was at his most impressive in the ‘Agnus Dei’, singing with dignified ease and certainty. Instrumental ensemble and voices were perfectly at one and the sound palette vivid and balanced in the closing sections of the work and rounded off a thoroughly worthwhile and enjoyable concert.

Glyn Pursglove 


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