These two choirs have each made several recordings
for Delphian and the label has brought them together once before to
make a very fine recording of Rodion Shchedrin’s
The Sealed
Angel (
review).
Now, four years later, they have been reunited to bring us a very different
programme, comprising High Romantic German music.
It’s in the nature of student choirs that there’s a constant
membership churn as students leave on completing their studies to be
replaced by new arrivals. I doubt that many if any singers from the
Shchedrin recording remain but the excellence of the choral sound and
musicianship of the combined choir is a constant, I think. What Delphian
has dubbed its ‘superchoir’ - and why not? - comprised sixty-three
singers (19/14/12/18) for this recording. That includes three low basses
who are guest singers, presumably for the Strauss. The choir makes a
splendid sound. There’s no hint of unwieldiness despite the size
of the ensemble and the sound is fresh and clear yet, despite the age
of the singers, it has plenty of body too. I enjoyed listening to the
superchoir very much.
The freshness is perhaps most evident of all in the performance of Schubert’s
Gott ist mein Hirt, a German version of Psalm 23. This is for
women’s voices and the sound that the sopranos and altos make
here is most appealing. The only thing that spoils the performance for
me is the use of a fortepiano. No doubt this is authentic in the sense
that this would have been the sort of instrument that would have been
heard in Schubert’s time but these days we hear Schubert’s
keyboard parts played so often on a modern grand piano and I wonder
if achieving true authenticity should have meant using a smaller group
of singers also. I’m afraid the tinkling sound of the instrument
rather trivialises the accompaniment to my ears, though that’s
very much a personal view and my comments in no way reflect adversely
on the player, David Ward.
The rest of the programme is unaccompanied. The Brahms motet is right
in the mainstream of the Lutheran lineage. It gets a robust performance,
though that doesn’t preclude some pleasing shading in the fourth
verse, and the concluding Amen is strongly projected. The set of four
Schumann part songs also come off well. I particularly admired the lively
rhythms and bright choral sound in the second song, ‘Ungewisses
Licht’, while the concluding ‘Talismane’ benefits
from the conviction and vitality that these young singers bring to the
music.
The three songs by Cornelius were new to me and I found much to admire
in them. They’re good examples of German Romantic choral music
and they seem to be excellently written for choir. In the first and
last songs the choir divides into eight parts. Though I was unfamiliar
with the music these performances seem to be very fine and the music
is presented with firm conviction. The Cornelius pieces are conducted
by David Trendell, who also takes charge of the Strauss; the remainder
of the programme is in the equally expert hands of Gonville & Caius
College’s Geoffrey Webber.
So to David Trendell falls the task of directing the piece which I suspect
was the
raison d’être for combining the choirs
in the first place. The eight-part textures of the Cornelius are as
nothing compared with the luxuriance of Strauss’s writing in his
Deutsche Motette. Here the choral writing splits into as many
as sixteen separate parts plus a solo quartet - and there are small
parts for a further three soloists at one juncture. Strauss sets Rückert’s
lines to music of significant complexity that makes great demands on
the singers. To be honest I wondered, before playing the disc, whether
these young singers would have the vocal maturity and sheer heft necessary
to deliver such music convincingly but within a couple of minutes it
was evident that and such fears were groundless. The choir puts over
Strauss’s rich, complex textures with great assurance and the
requisite tonal strength and warmth. There’s some lovely, firm
quiet singing and at the rapturous climaxes there’s no lack of
full-throated tone. The solo quartet does well in their taxing music
with Helen Massey’s soaring soprano a particular asset.
In recording the
Deutsche Motette Paul Baxter has very sensibly
opted to produce a sound that clarifies the often complex and eventful
polyphony, thereby avoiding an aural mush. The singers appear to be
fairly close to the microphones - the soloists in the foreground - but
Baxter has skilfully managed to give us clarity without producing a
clinical sound; he’s made good use of the natural resonance of
the church where the recording was made and the results are excellent.
The listener can hear a great deal of what’s going on and one
can only admire the tireless efforts of these student singers. Even
though I’m a great fan of Strauss I’m not wholly convinced
by the piece, I have to admit. It does seem to me to be somewhat prolix
at times and over-complicated. On the other hand one can simply surrender
and sit back to enjoy the luxuriant choral textures. That’s what
I did and I enjoyed this highly assured performance very much.
This is a highly desirable disc of interesting music in excellent and
committed performances which have been expertly recorded. A well-produced
booklet, including good notes by David Trendell completes the attractions
of this release.
John Quinn 
