Nigel Don’s Luke Passion
Chalmers Church, Morningside, 16/11/2024
Luke Passion, composed by Nigel Don
Members of Chalmers Church congregation Chamber Orchestra, Nigel Don, conductor, Robert Dick, leader
I first met the composer Nigel Don when he sent me a set of songs for Bass, Violin and Piano during the Pandemic. He had heard my recording of Songs of Stevenson and thought my voice would suit his songs. Consequently, I performed his song cycle, ‘Don’t ask the Time,’ in St Michael’s Church in 2023 with Emma Lloyd and Stuart Hope, and, more recently, performed a couple of Nigel’s Byron settings in a concert at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery with Beth Taylor and John Kitchen.
I was intrigued to find that Nigel had written a Luke Passion for community choir and small orchestra, which was to have its premiere at Chalmers Church in Morningside Road on Saturday 16th November, and duly went along to hear it. I have passed Chalmers Church thousands of times in my life but had never been inside. It is a non-denominational place, with apparently quite a large and youthful congregation, and with a strong desire to spread the word of Jesus and Christianity. Now as a confirmed atheist, I was somewhat wary of what I was letting myself in for, but there was no sign of proselytising at the concert, and I am able to write an objective review of the event.
Most of the performers were amateurs, so this is not a standard EMR review, but is rather about the fascinating work that Nigel Don has produced in his version of the story of Jesus’ arrest, trial and crucifixion, as portrayed by the evangelist, Luke. Inspired by the masterworks of Bach, the St Matthew and St John Passions, Mr Don has written a piece that can be performed by anyone with a decent grasp of music. The instrumental score needs a professional (or at least very good amateur) chamber orchestra of 10 players, but most of the narrative is spoken, while the choir comments on the events in harmonised but not overly difficult parts. The role of Luke is given to a narrator, in this case David Laing, who occasionally enunciates in song. I felt the singing somewhat unnecessary (not a criticism of Mr Laing), and would have preferred him to remain as a speaker. The characters in the story appeared out of the choir, and again the text was largely spoken. Here I felt their brief outbursts of song were more appropriate, as they were part of a choir, and the story was told quite effectively.
Nigel Don’s music is not hard to sing but has a splendid simplicity and directness which is very appealing. The choir was made up of members of the congregation, some of whom sing in other choirs, but who are not ‘a church choir’. They were, on the whole, pretty much in tune and produced a decent range of sound and, being lightly amplified, good diction. The performance was lit quite atmospherically but having gone to the length of printing the words in the programme, we couldn’t read them, as we were in the dark. Perhaps a future performance could address this problem?
The instrumentation of the Luke Passion was cleverly conceived and very well played. I’d like to give a special mention to the superb French horn playing of James Goodenough, which was more than good enough and was indeed outstanding. The ensemble was led from the first desk by Robert Dick and performed extremely well. There were several cute touches, the clarinet cock crow being a fine example.
Luke’s narrative was framed by two sections from the prophet Isaiah, which gave the work both context and shape, although I felt the last section outstayed its welcome somewhat. All in all though, this is a welcome addition to the repertoire of amateur choirs, and I hope it receives future outings.
