Music

Music Review: Adelaide Chamber Singers, Procession

Nothing can equal the beauty of voices blended in harmony a cappella and guest conductor Christie Anderson, conducted the whole ensemble with flair.

 

procession_smAdelaide Chamber Singers – 2013 Subscription Series
Reviewed 28 September 2013

Nothing can equal the beauty of voices blended in harmony a cappella. The opening piece of Procession was Prayer 1, lyrics by Gerard Manley Hopkins with music written by Benjamin Britten and it prepares the audience for the wonderful sounds to follow. Britten in A.M.D.G. (Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam) has used seven of Hopkins poems, and all are beautifully delivered. I particularly enjoyed the sixth piece, The Soldier, although all were an interesting combination of words and music.

The second item displayed the words of Walt Whitman to the music of Jeffery Van, called A Procession Winding Around Me and featuring Alex Tsiboulski on guitar. Again the harmony and precision of the singers is a pleasure to listen to, but this time the added dimension of the guitar brings another element to the sound and Tsiboulski shows the dynamics he can achieve without much effort.

After the interval the conductor, guest performer Christie Anderson, lead the Singers back to give us the beautiful poem The Grace of Love, text from the Carmina Godelica set to the music of David Bedford, followed by Morning-Song for the Christ Child by Roger Covell, music by Peter Scunthorpe, again a cappella and beautifully presented. For the final bracket Alex Tsiboulski again joined the Singers on classical guitar. Romancero Gitano op. 152 uses the poetry of Fredrico Garcia Lorca and the music of Mario Castelnuvovo-Tedesco and featured two soloists. Timothy Marks has a rich and smooth bass voice which was displayed to advantage in the fourth part of this work and Martin Penhale made equally good use of his tenor voice in the sixth part.

The finale piece of this, Crótalo brought all these wonderful voice together with the guitar for a very strong finish. The guest conductor Christie Anderson, who controlled all with her baton, conducted the whole ensemble with flair.

A very pleasant way to spend an evening.

Reviewed by Fran Edwards

Venue: Elder Hall, North Terrace, Adelaide
Season: 27 -29 September 2013
Duration: 2 hrs

 

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