Meticulous, emotionally satisfying, musically true vocal performance
Presented by: The Adelaide Chamber Singers
Reviewed: 15 March, 2023
Using old-school surround-sound techniques, the Adelaide Chamber Singers create delectable washes of vocal sound throughout St Peter’s Cathedral. The interior of William Butterfield’s nineteenth century gothic revival building is designed to enhance sung vocal tone as well as elevate church-goers’ souls. Nineteen black-clad choristers, under the direction of Christie Anderson (Artistic Director and Conductor), sing an a cappella programme of ten interestingly diverse works, all loosely centred around the sky, stars, night, sleep, light and darkness.
Here’s the scorecard. Four pieces are in Latin, three in English, two in German and one in Italian. Dates range from 13th century through to current compositions. Five of the composers are still alive. There’s a Tallis (of course). Both J.S. Bach pieces are arranged; one by Rhonda Sandberg, and one (Komm, süsser Tod) so gloriously worked-over by Knut Nystedt that its mother wouldn’t know it.
Billed as a sung-through programme, it begins with five choristers on stage while the remaining 14 process slowly through the cathedral from back to front whilst singing Dou Way Robyn/Sancta mater gratiae. Looping, swooping melodic lines and deliciously modern-sounding close harmonies are a feature of this 13th century anonymous piece. Six songs are sung whilst standing in a fairly traditional shallow semicircle. However, choristers constantly appear in different places within this configuration. Ubi caritas, set to sizzling harmonies by Paul Mealor, is sung up at the high altar end of the cathedral. One, Joe Twist’s Do not stand at my grave and weep, is sung at the back of the cathedral. Its lush quality is a product of Twist’s musicianship and constant sensitivity to the text, combined with a chamber choir that listens as well as it sings. Nysted’s Immortal Bach begins at the back of the audience and the choristers process in three columns (both sides and central aisle) to the front. This suits its swirling blurs of mystic polyphony.
“The singers will perform while moving through space”, the programme promised. And yes, they certainly do. It may be unfair to remind fellow Festival choir enthusiasts of the 2018 Human Requiem, Brahms’s German Requiem sung by the Rundfunkchor Berlin, in that palace of culture the Ridley Centre of Wayville Showgrounds.
The quality of choral sound is consistently high throughout, with emphasis being placed on the characteristically clear, refined “white” tone of English ecclesiastical vocal tradition. Tonal balances are deftly maintained through placement as well as dynamics by Anderson, whose direction seems to be both meticulous and gentle.
One highlight for me is crazy Latvian Ēriks Ešenvalds’ kinky work, Stars. Each chorister holds a wine glass half-full of water. Everyone moistens a finger and proceeds to “play” their glass. The glasses are tuned. And the choristers sing at the same time. The harmonic effects produced are both exquisite and eerie. I enjoyed the wolfish baritone treatment of Vexilla Regis prodeunt inferni! in Stroope’s We beheld once again the stars. The final song, Elgar’s setting of Lux aeterna, provides just the sort of comforting caress and reassurance we all need to help us keep going.
The names of the chamber singers are listed on the front of the programme. Thanks to each one of you, together with your conductor, for a swoon-worthy programme of beautifully coordinated choral work. As the applause died down, my two nonagenarian neighbours couldn’t wait to tell me how much they loved it. Me too.
Reviewed by Pat H. Wilson
Photo credit: Tony Lewis
Venue: St Peter’s Cathedral, North Adelaide
Season: Season ended
