SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Fauré and Howard Goodall: Charlotte Mobbs (soprano), Ronan Collett (baritone), Christ Church Cathedral Choir, Oxford Philomusica, Marios Papadopoulos, Stephen Darlington, 6.5.2010 (BBr)

Fauré: Requiem, op.48 (1893 version – edited and reconstructed by John Rutter)

Howard Goodall: Eternal Light: A Requiem (2007/2008)

We’re used to hearing Fauré’s Requiem in a version with full orchestra, but that wasn’t his original intention. It was whilst undertaking research in the Bibliothèque Nationale  in Paris, that John Rutter found the original (1888) score, which included only five movements, with details of the intended expansion into a work including two more – the Offertoire and Libera Me being the additions. The scoring was as unique as the musical conception – strings, without violins, two horns, organ, harp and a sparingly used solo violin. This is the version we heard tonight.

There are several striking things about his version. It is a much darker work than the usually played score, and the drama has to come from the singers alone, for there are no opportunities for orchestral highlighting of the emotions. The solo violin is used in only the Sanctus and the final In Paradisum and in the former movement it has a tortuous line in E flat – not a good key for a stringed instrument – which really felt out of place and, also, sounded to be out of tune, which it wasn’t. I can understand Fauré’s wanting this brighter string sound, but one instrument simply cannot convey the beauty of line which was  so obviously intended.

Marios Papadopoulos directed a fine performance, fully in keeping with the intimacy of the conception. Baritone Ronan Collett gave a good, understated, performance and the famous Pie Jesu (“the only Pie Jesu”, according to Saint–Saëns) was given by an unnamed boy from the choir, who displayed remarkable breath control and managed the longest of phrases with ease. Fauré’s music was never colourful, in the way that Saint–Saëns’s music was, but he was a complete composer who knew what he was doing and understood how to deliver the message he had in his mind. This version is not immediately attractive, for it is hard work, due to the scoring, but I’d certainly like to hear it again, and a performance as fine as this opened my ears to new emotional possibilities.

Howard Goodall is well known for his various TV programmes about music, as well as his expertly crafted TV theme tunes – Mr Bean, The Vicar of Dibley, Blackadder and QI, amongst others. If his larger works aren’t as well know then that is our loss for there is an impressive body of works available, from musicals – my favourite is his collaboration with Melvyn Bragg, The Hired Man – to choral works, since Goodall became a chorister at New College Oxford when aged only 8. His Missa Aedis Christi, for chorus with string quintet and organ, should not be missed (it’s available on Sanctuary Classics CD DCA 1028) and there is much else.

Eternal Light: A Requiem is not a fire and brimstone depiction of purgatory and ultimate judgment, but a composition of solace, if you like, one which gives comfort, even hope, to those who survive the deaths of people close to us. Playing for about 45 minutes, and scored for a small string orchestra with harp, piano, organ and keyboard this is a work of meditation and reflection. Goodall never raises his voice in anger, that’s not his style anyway, and he tells his tales with music which is written in an understandable language, sometimes of great beauty, with finely wrought choruses and arias. As the work was written as much for dance – it was conceived for both the Ballet Rambert and London Musici – as for the concert hall, I wonder if the short durations of most of the movements were dictated by the dancers' needs. Even so, the work stands well by itself, without benefit of the terpsichorean art; indeed, I cannot imagine it having anything added to it, as it is so obviously complete in itself.

Charlotte Mobbs gave a very moving account of her music, soaring, at the end, above the full texture, and Ronan Collett was authoritative in his very moving solo I have to believe that you still exist. Stephen Darlington was at the helm here (he conducted the recording EMI CLASSICS 2 15047 2) and he directed a forthright and direct performance, without sentimentality or overt emotion, allowing the music to speak for itself and create its own magic – exactly what a good conductor does.

This is the second time I’ve heard the Oxford Philomusica live in a few months, both times in contemporary English music, and it is an impressive orchestra. We should hear more of it in London.

Bob Briggs