Dunedin Consort: Hail, O Queen
Greyfriars Kirk - 13/05/23
I have two things to declare before writing this review. Firstly, I have sung as a soloist and recorded with the Dunedin Consort in the past. Secondly, my father was an elder of the Church of Scotland. I hope neither of these precludes my ability to review this concert of music written to celebrate the Virgin Mary over 900 years.
This was a quite outstanding concert of a cappella singing by the vocal section of the Dunedin Consort, directed by their Associate Director, Nicholas Mulroy. In the superb acoustic of Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh, as part of a tour which has taken in Aberdeen, Perth and Glasgow as well, we were treated to some of the best small choir singing I have heard for many years. The 15 singers blended magnificently, and each voice was crystal clear in articulation and sonority. These are all professional singers, well capable of singing extensive solo parts, and their ability to sing together as an ensemble in tricky multi part harmony was exemplary. One of the benefits of the choral tradition in Britain, and particularly in England, is the constant cohort of excellent singers coming on stream year after year from the production line of the cathedrals and ancient universities. My own experience as Honorary Professor of Singing at St Andrews University enabled me to see at close quarters how good these young singers can be, and the group which had been assembled tonight at Greyfriars was as good as it gets. Add in a bit of experience from one or two older voices, and you have a recipe for success which kept the reasonable sized audience enthralled. The clash with Eurovision and a sunny evening was a shame, as the place should have been sold out!
The programme, devised by Nicholas Mulroy and Dunedin’s Head of Artistic Planning, Edward Edgecumbe, was a fascinating examination of music devoted to the Virgin Mary through the centuries, from Hildegard of Bingen in the 12th century to a piece composed by Joanna Ward (born in 1998). There was much to enjoy in this programme, and none of the contemporary, or near contemporary, works suffered by comparison with some of the great composers of the past, and the attention to detail of the Dunedin Consort ensured that we heard each composition at its best.
I know Nicholas as a superb tenor soloist, who sang the Evangelist on our shared recording of Bach’s ‘Matthew Passion’ by the Dunedin Consort back in 2008, but I didn’t expect him to be such a good choral director, drawing luminescent singing from the group, and finding subtle nuances and grand fortes, scrupulously balanced throughout, whether in the mystical minimalism of Arvo Pärt’s ‘Magnificat’ or in the joyful exclamations, based on African music, of Giles Swayne’s setting of the same words. In addition, Nicholas’s amusing and interesting introductions to each piece were well-judged.
The whole programme was held together by various parts of Palestrina’s Mass, Assumpta est Maria, itself based on the Italian composer’s own motet of the same name (Mary is taken up to Heaven), and it was particularly splendid to hear one of the great masses of the Renaissance period in the wonderfully rich acoustic of Greyfriars. The Dunedins gave full justice to this fine piece, with the outer parts in particular being beautifully sung, and indeed a strong bass line was noticeable throughout the concert, something I, as a bass myself, relished.
There was something for everyone in the programme, and, on the whole, the more modern pieces demonstrated how vocal music has adapted much better to the huge changes in musical harmony brought about by the 20th century. For me, only the ‘Gaude et Laetare’ by Cheryl Frances-Hoad jarred my ears. Nicholas had suggested it would hit us hard, but joyfully, but I only felt hit really! If the Dunedins had looked more joyful, it might have helped, but I imagine the fiendish virtuosity of the writing precluded much time for joy.
Otherwise, there was much to savour throughout the evening. Particular high spots for me were the ravishing motet, ‘Nesciens Mater’, by the 15th century Jean Mouton, the very moving ‘There is no rose’ by Cecilia McDowall, written for King’s College Cambridge in 2021, and the ‘Salve Regina’ by the recently discovered black 16th century Portuguese composer, Vicente Lusitano. The beginning of the second half of the concert was brilliantly staged, as solo female voices all over the church rang out in Hildegard of Bingen’s ‘Ave Generosa’, extraordinary music from an extraordinary woman 900 years ago. The singers all reassembled at the east end of the church to perform Arvo Pärt’s stunning ‘Magnificat’, first heard in Stuttgart in 1990, a perfect example of the composer’s ‘tintinnabulation’ style. I have been lucky enough to sing Christus in many performances of Pärt’s ‘Passio’ (St John Passion) all over the world with the renowned Hilliard Ensemble, and have met Arvo several times. He is a deeply spiritual man, and his music reflects his personality perfectly. This performance of the ‘Magnificat’ was a very moving experience, beautifully sung by the Dunedin Consort. Time seems to stand still when listening to his music, a welcome respite amidst the hurly burly of 21st century life.
Towards the end of the concert, we heard the ‘Ave, Dulcissima’ of the outrageous Carlo Gesualdo, (1566-1613), Prince of Venosaand famously a double murderer (although found not guilty of a crime, conveniently), and this proved one of the high points of the evening. Five voices – Rachel Ambrose Evans, Sarah Anne Champion, Will Wright, James Robinson and the excellent bass, Tim Dickinson - sang this eerily chromatic music perfectly, nicely moulded by Nicholas Mulroy.
The final motet, Bruckner’s ‘Ave Maria’, was the ideal conclusion to this fine concert, his luscious harmonies allowing the full Consort to display all their tonal quality.
This was a truly outstanding concert.
