Bob CHILCOTT (b. 1955)
Five Days that Changed the World [19:24]
The Miracle of the Spring [14:08]
The Angry Planet – an Environmental Cantata [46:48]
Gemma Beeson (piano), Markus Gruett (timpani), Olivia Robinson (soprano), Eleanor Minney (alto), Emma Tring (soprano), Nigel Carman (percussion)
BBC Singers, The Bach Choir, The Young Singers, London Youth Choir, Finchley Children’s Group/David Hill
rec. 2015, BBC Studios, Maida Vale, London
English texts included
SIGNUM CLASSICS SIGCD422 [33:39 + 46:48]
Having heard and sung quite a lot of choral music by both
composers I think that Bob Chilcott and John Rutter share a number of characteristics.
One is that the music often sounds quite “easy” on the surface
– no doubt because it’s accessible in style – when in fact
it’s often quite tricky to perform, and certainly requires considerable
skill to perform well. Both also have a seemingly natural aptitude for writing
music that people want to sing and hear. I experienced quite a powerful
reminder of these attributes in Chilcott’s music some three years ago
when I took part in a day-long workshop that he ran on his Requiem. Over two
hundred amateur singers of varying degrees of experience gathered together.
I’m pretty sure that the music was new to the majority yet their engagement
with the music was soon palpable and the workshop was characterised by great
enthusiasm on the part of all who took part. The music certainly presented
some technical challenges but these were not sufficiently daunting as to create
a barrier to participation and enjoyment.
I was reminded of that experience as I listened to the pieces on these CDs.
The three works concerned are all accessible in style while clearly presenting
quite a few challenges to the participants. However, these three pieces all
have other things in common. For one thing they have been designed specifically
to involve young singers and to get them working alongside adult musicians.
Furthermore, each of the three scores addresses a serious issue in a way that
actively engages with the younger participants while in no way patronising
them. All this can only be a good thing. When I interviewed
Bob Chilcott for MusicWeb International not long ago he talked with great
enthusiasm about his work writing for young singers. He also discussed his
frequent collaboration with the poet, Charles Bennett, who has furnished the
texts for all three works recorded here.
Actually this performance of The Miracle of the Spring doesn’t
use young voices though it was written for such a group, namely the choir
of Magdalen College School, Oxford. Here it’s sung by the BBC Singers.
The score includes percussion parts, originally designed to be played by members
of the choir. I like very much the sparing use that Chilcott makes of the
instruments, which means that when they are involved their contribution is
all the more ear-catching.
The five Charles Bennett poems concern the subject of water and in his booklet
note Chilcott writes that when this was proposed the idea appealed to him
because he’d recently been in the USA where the subject of water shortages
was very much on the agenda. The music is very engaging. The second setting,
‘The Source of the Spring’, is simple, gentle and touching; it’s
here that the two soloists make their contributions. The last three settings
follow each other without a break. In the third and fourth movements the use
of log drums to emphasise the lively rhythms is most effective. Towards the
end of the fourth movement the music slows and becomes more thoughtful in
tone. This proves to be an ideal bridge to the final setting where this mood
is continued. The fifth poem, ‘The Voice of Water’ is in effect
a hymn to water and its healing, refreshing properties which are so vital
to our everyday lives.
Five Days that Changed the World was composed for the 2013 Worcester
International Festival for Young Singers and its first performance, in Worcester
Cathedral, was reviewed
by my Seen and Heard colleague, Roger Jones. The idea is ingenious. Bennett
and Chilcott decided to devise a five-movement piece in which each movement
deals with an event on a particular date that was momentous in the evolution
of civilisation. So the poems concern the invention of printing; the abolition
of slavery; the first powered flight by the Wright brothers; the discovery
of penicillin; and the first man in space. It’s a marvellous, universally
appealing idea, especially as the first performance was to be given by a choir
of some 400 young singers representing 11 countries. In this work an adult
choir is involved and the youth choir contributes to three of the five movements.
All the movements are very successful. However, three made a particularly
strong impression on me. The poem that discusses the abolition of slavery
is set to music that’s very typical of this composer: it’s slow,
harmonically warm and very thoughtful. The main material is sung by the adult
choir and the young singers have an engaging countermelody. The piece is simple
and sincere; I found it touching. By contrast, as you might expect, the exploits
of the Wright brothers are described in energetic and very positive music.
Arguably, Chilcott reserves the best till last. In the slow-paced music that
sets Bennett’s words about the first manned space flight he achieves
a sense of wonder that is entirely appropriate to the subject.
The Angry Planet was a commission from the Bach Choir, first performed
at the 2012 Proms. The idea, including the title and the involvement of young
singers, was David Hill’s. He proposed, in Chilcott’s words, a
piece “on the subject of the fragility of our world and on our need
to respect and care for our environment.” This score, lasting some 45
minutes, for unaccompanied choirs, is the result.
Once again the words are by Charles Bennett and this is an appropriate point
to praise his contribution to all three works. His texts have been designed
to appeal to young people yet there is not the slightest hint of condescension.
Instead, his poems are clearly expressed in direct well-imagined language.
The various poems concern serious issues but there’s no grandstanding
rhetoric in them. I think that in each work the texts serve their purpose
admirably.
The Angry Planet is concerned with a forest at night over a twelve-hour
period from 6pm. Its four sections each relate to a three-hour segment of
time, though I hasten to add there’s no narrative of time passing; instead
we are invited to observe and reflect upon the forest at various points in
the night. More to the point, we observe a threatened forest because
the primary thrust of Bennett’s poems is the damage that man has done
and may continue to do to the natural environment of the forest. This is driven
home at several points in the score by the youth choir who “in an exaggerated
spoken style”, as the composer describes it, enunciate the names of
various animal species which are either at risk of extinction or which have
passed the point of no return.
The children’s choir fulfils a different function. At several points
in the score they sing, in unison, what Chilcott refers to as “simple
songs in which they play the role of hardy weeds and flowers that, despite
so such loss, have managed to survive.” In this recording the children
sing with winning assurance. Their singing is fresh, confident and keen of
tone. Though Chilcott doesn’t say so, I suspect that they may also represent
the Voice of Innocence. The children that take part here do themselves enormous
credit by their singing. Let it not be forgotten that although some of the
adult singers are usually providing an “accompaniment” to what
they sing all the children’s music is unaccompanied yet their tuning
never falters.
I’m not going to describe the work in detail; that would take too long.
But I will single out some highlights. At the very start – the forest
at 6pm – Chilcott’s dense, slow harmonic writing for the main
choir evocatively suggests the impenetrable gloom of a forest. The next movement
is harshly rhythmical, the rather jagged writing underlining the message of
Bennett’s poem, ‘As if’ which reminds us of the harm we
can do to the natural world simply to provide for our everyday needs, such
as warmth.
It seems to me that the third movement, which covers the time-span between
midnight and 3am, is the heart of the work. The first section, ‘Midnight’,
includes an important part for solo soprano. Emma Tring has an attractive
tone and she sings her plaintive lines expressively. Sadly, I found her words
to be well-nigh unintelligible if I didn’t follow closely in the booklet.
Chilcott’s choral writing is very effective in suggesting deep night.
There follows a short setting, ‘We need’, which is very similar
to ‘As if’ and that’s appropriate since this section, too,
deals with man’s pillaging of the environment. This movement ends in
a rather different way to ‘As if’. Suddenly the pace of the music
slows markedly as the choir sings “Now the forest has gone/how quiet
it is!”; it’s a moment of realisation and, dare we hope, of awareness.
The following movement is in effect a requiem for the environment; indeed,
some of the choir sing Latin words from the Requiem Mass over and over. Meanwhile
the youth choir recites a list of extinct wildlife species. It doesn’t
sound much when described in mere words but, when heard, the effect is moving.
In the last of the four sections of this movement I like the way Bennett has
woven into his poem ‘Sorry too late’ words from the General Confession
that are found in the Book of Common Prayer.
It would be a challenge – and probably unrealistic - to bring The
Angry Planet to a “happy end” after this. Wisely, Chilcott
and Bennett don’t try. However, they do manage to leave us on a note
of cautious optimism, not least with a setting of a poem about an otter swimming
in clear water. The message is clear: it’s not too late to save the
Planet. The Angry Planet is a sincere, effective and impressive score
and it’s impressively performed here.
These three works are full of attractive, accessible music. Bob Chilcott is
a most effective musical communicator and these scores display his gifts as
a choral composer to the full. The performances are consistently excellent
and the recorded sound is truthful and clear.
I see that my colleague, Gwyn Parry-Jones made this a Recording of the
Month. Having heard the discs I agree wholeheartedly with his judgement.
John
Quinn
Previous review: Gwyn
Parry-Jones (July Recording of the Month)
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