The
Wellensian
Consort was formed in 2009 by Christopher Finch as part of the
celebrations
to mark the 1100
th anniversary of Wells Cathedral School. Within
a
year the group had gone on to win the BBC Choir of the Year competition in
2010:
some start. Since then they’ve become frequent broadcasters and have
appeared
at some of the leading venues and festivals in the UK.
For their debut CD they’ve chosen music by one of
Britain’s most prominent and accessible choral composers. In fact, Bob
Chilcott is developing something of a link with the musicians of Wells. The
Cathedral choir made a very fine CD of his music a couple of years ago,
including the eloquent Requiem (
review) and earlier this year the choir gave the
first performance of Chilcott’s
St. John Passion, which was
written for them (
review).
For anyone unfamiliar with Bob Chilcott’s music the nearest
comparison I can offer is the music of John Rutter. Like Rutter, Chilcott
seems to have the knack of writing vocal music that is consistently
attractive, not least on account of its melodiousness. He also shares with
Rutter an ability to produce well-crafted music which is satisfying to sing
and well written for voices. Also he is well attuned to the texts he sets -
though, unlike Rutter, I don’t believe he often, if ever, writes his
own texts. There’s one other thing they have in common: just because
the music is attractive on the surface no one should assume it’s easy;
both composers know how to stretch their performers, albeit in a rewarding
way. Chilcott writes in the booklet note that much of his output has been
composed for amateur choirs and this ‘has presented me with the
challenge of writing music that encourages people to sing, and this has
always been one of the most important and motivating aspects of why I write
choral music.’ Note the use of the word “encourage”: that
speaks volumes for Bob Chilcott and his approach. His music has the popular
touch but it is
not populist. I’ve attended a couple of
performances of pieces by him at which he’s been present and on both
occasions I was struck by how many members of the audience - and how many
performers - crowded round him afterwards, keen to have an appreciative
word: he made time for them all.
Almost all the music on this CD was written for a specific choir,
presumably to commissions, and several were composed for youth choirs though
we hear them now in his subsequent versions for mixed choir
. A Little
Jazz Mass is one such. I took part in a concert a couple of years ago in
which a school choir sang this piece and they did so with evident enjoyment.
I was interested to see that the accompaniment here is provided by the Will
Todd Trio for Todd himself has written a jazz Mass but his
Mass in
Blue was aimed squarely at adult choir and is on a more ambitious scale
(
review). Chilcott’s composition is catchy - especially
in the outer sections of the Gloria - and the jazz idiom is well integrated
into the music: it sounds natural and not grafted on. The Wellensian
Consort’s performance is full of verve and I particularly admired
their committed singing of the soulful Agnus Dei.
A Little Jazz Mass is one of several pieces receiving its
first recording on this disc. Another is
I Share Creation. Here
Chilcott explores a theme to which he was to return on a larger scale in his
2012 Proms commission,
The Angry Planet: environmental issues. Here
he sets four texts from a variety of sources - a Chinese labouring song from
2500 BC; Native American; Aztec; Inuit - all in English translations. The
result is an appealing work. The Chinese text is given a rousing setting.
The middle two movements are sung
attacca and the music for both is
expressive and slow, while the concluding Inuit setting is extrovert and
joyful.
There’s also an innovative approach to text selection in
Aesop’s Fables, which also receives its debut recording here:
I’m not aware that many composers have set any of these fables.
Chilcott has chosen five and he says that in his settings he makes passing
references to the music of other composers. I must confess that I found most
of these well hidden
though the debts to Brahms in the fourth song and
to Schubert (
Du bist die Ruh) in the final one are a little easier to
spot. The settings are imaginative. I particularly liked the treatment of
the fourth fable, ‘The North Wind and the Sun’, where, after the
earlier, apposite wind-swept turbulence the music in the last verse opens up
into a luminous radiance. The final fable, ‘The Goose and the
Swan’, is set to pleasingly warm, homophonic music.
The shorter pieces are all attractive. My ear was caught
particularly by
Our Father. This is the closing section of a larger
work,
The Bread of Life, which was written for three German choirs.
We hear The Lord’s Prayer, sung to slightly different words than
usual, and then it’s repeated while a second choir, seemingly placed
at a distance here, sing Christ’s words ‘I am the bread of
Life’. This results in the fullest choral textures to be heard on this
disc and, I’m inclined to think, the best music. I should like to hear
the complete work.
Among the other works,
Mid-winter turns out to be a setting
of our old friend, Christina Rossetti’s
In the Bleak Midwinter;
originally for children’s choir but effective in this mixed voice
version. It’s a nice alternative to the very familiar settings by
other composers.
The Lily and the Rose was also first written for
children to sing. It features a most appealing, easily flowing melody which,
I should think, would encourage children - and adults - to sing it.
Everyone Sang, the piece which gives the album its title, is a
setting of an inspiring, optimistic poem by Siegfried Sassoon. It put me in
mind of some of the part songs of Gerald Finzi - even though the two
composer’s styles are very different. I like the way Chilcott uses
compound time to give the music a very positive feel and good forward
momentum.
The first piece on the disc,
The Isle is Full of Noises, is a
most effective calling-card for the Wellensian Consort. Immediately we hear
a bright, eager sound; the words are clear and the rhythms are crisp. The
singers - six or seven sopranos, six altos, five tenors and six basses -
blend very well and the quality of the sound is keen and pleasing. Happily,
this sets the standard for everything else on the disc. The music is
consistently attractive and so is the singing. This is an auspicious debut
CD by the Wellensian Consort. I’m certain we shall hear more of Bob
Chilcott’s music on disc but I hope very much that it won’t be
long before we have another release from this talented choir.
John Quinn
