HOPE for Children
is a relatively new charity, founded
only in 1994, "to assist Handicapped,
Orphaned, Poor and Exploited children
in developing countries and the United
Kingdom". In the introductory paragraph
printed in the CD booklet special emphasis
is laid on helping street children in
developing countries, "to provide
a lifeline for children, away from a
life of begging and abuse" but
concentrating on that would, I think,
give a limited impression of the range
of the charity’s activities. Those interested
in knowing more should go to www.hope4c.org.
The Finchley Children’s
Music Group has given the royalties
for this delightful CD of Christmas
related music to HOPE for Children.
The Group was founded in 1958, as the
booklet again reminds us, "to give
the first amateur performance of Benjamin
Britten’s Noye’s Fludde".
A distinguished record of achievement
has followed, with a fair emphasis on
contemporary music. The current Musical
Director is Grace Rossiter, who was
herself a member of the Group. John
Evanson is the sensitive accompanist
in many of the pieces on the disc.
Despite the inclusion
of a couple of carols from overseas
the programme has a strong English feel
to it, and the disc will bring a lot
of pleasure to musical households this
Christmas and in years to come. The
link with the nativity story is sometimes
only tenuous, as in The Birds,
the beautiful song by the sixteen year-old
Britten which ends in a different key
from that in which it begins.
The standard of music
making is outstanding. Tuning is immaculate,
attack is unanimous and convincing,
the words are clear and the overall
sound of the group is sweet and homogeneous.
Given this technical excellence, then,
I was surprised to find that for my
personal taste some of the singing seems
cautious and lacking in abandon. I wouldn’t
want to make too much of this, but in
short, I sometimes wished the children
would let their hair down a little more.
I felt this even in one or two of the
slower pieces, such as The Birds
and Warlock’s Balulalow, where
the tempi adopted make it difficult
to achieve in any case. Conversely,
in Britten’s Corpus Christi Carol
(adapted from A Boy was Born)
Grace Rossiter adopts a flowing tempo
which poses its own problems in respect
of the inner quality and aching sadness
inherent in the words and music of this
most touching piece. The choir shows
what they are capable of in Rutter’s
rather bland arrangement of Tomorrow
shall be my dancing day, however;
there is a real smile in the singing
here, real joy, real pleasure of communication.
They show their mettle in Britten’s
King Herod and the Cock too,
the story told with irresistible verve.
This disc offers a
welcome opportunity to hear Holst’s
Four Old English Carols. These
are early pieces, composed some ten
years before his huge popular success,
The Planets, so it is perhaps
unsurprising that the composer’s very
particular voice is not immediately
recognisable. They are simple, diatonic
settings, satisfying to sing, and the
third, Jesu, thou the Virgin-born
rather more than that, each of the four
verses taken by a different soloist
– affectingly, it seems, rising progressively
in age – and the refrain sung by the
chorus. There are signs in this piece
of that curious mix of the ascetic and
the luxurious which is the mature Holst,
and which we also hear in Lullay
my liking, given on this disc in
an arrangement for high voices by the
composer’s daughter.
Bethlehem Down
is perhaps a strange choice of piece
to use as the overall title of the disc.
Warlock reacted to the nativity story
as told in the poem by Bruce Blunt with
a music strange and unexpectedly sombre.
The children enter into the spirit of
the piece exceptionally well. The more
conventional The First Mercy
is just as successful.
Grace Rossiter’s properly
joyful arrangement of the Sussex
Carol – one of my personal favourites
– features Philip Langridge in a guest
appearance, recorded very close compared
to the choir. Likewise her lovely arrangement
of the Basque carol The Angel Gabriel,
expressive and very singable, with a
particularly imaginative use of solo
voices at the outset.
Patrick Hadley’s setting
of I sing of a maiden is a real
gem. Its gentle dissonances are most
expertly despatched by the choir, but
I did feel that the singing lacked a
bit of character here. De Virgin
Mary had a baby boy didn’t totally
convince me either, rather correct and
lacking in spontaneity (and others may
be less troubled by spoof accents than
I am). The Holly and the Ivy
also lacked the unbuttoned quality I
like from children’s singing, but it
is beautifully sung from a technical
point of view and allows me to draw
attention to the uniformly excellent
solo singing from young musicians too
numerous to mention but all of whom
are named on the booklet.
Michael Head’s ripely
diatonic Star Candles will give
much pleasure, especially sung as beautifully
as this, and is in sharp contrast to
final item in the programme, Andrew
Carter’s Mistletoe Carol. The
words, written by the composer, convey
a slightly cynical view of Christmas
and all that goes with it, and the music
goes along with this in skilful fashion.
The musical vocabulary, though hardly
revolutionary, will raise a few eyebrows
in this context, and the final, rather
surprising chord is an effective close
to a disc which will bring pleasure
to all who hear it as well as supporting
a thoroughly worthy cause.
William Hedley
Philip Langridge, tenor 
