SCO Chorus: Earth, Heaven and Sky
Stirling Castle Great Hall 9/6/24
SCO Chorus: Earth, Heaven and Sky SCO Chorus, Gregory Batsleer (conductor), Gordon Bragg (violin), Amira Bedrush-McDonald (violin), Brian Schiele (viola), Philip Higham (cello)
Picture credit :Christopher Bowen
The Great Hall of Stirling Castle was the august venue for the second outing of the SCO Chorus’ contribution to the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s Summer Tour, ‘Earth, Heaven and Sky’. The 49-strong choir was conducted by their Chorus Director, Gregory Batsleer. Though the SCO Chorus is principally renowned for its a cappella performances, this tour programme also featured a quartet of string players from the Orchestra, violinists Gordon Bragg and Amira Bedrush-McDonald, violist Brian Schiele (of Mr McFall’s Chamber fame) and SCO principal cellist Philip Higham.
The concert opened with the big sound of James MacMillan’s ‘Data est mihi omnis potestas’, written in 2007 but published as the first in Book 1 of the Strathclyde Motets. The ornamentation of the soprano line in the quieter central section put me in mind of traditional Gaelic song and was exquisitely delivered, before the muscular conclusion returned to the music of the beginning. A powerful opening, reminding me that few composers so consistently set the word ‘alleluia’ with such conviction as MacMillan. The SCO Chorus performed it with every ounce of the same conviction.
Philip Higham’s cello in the musician’s gallery at the back of the hall played a crucial role in Tavener’s 1995 ‘Syvati’, a setting of a Russian Orthodox funerary prayer. A drone of basses underlay the cello’s supplication, the line as suggestive of a Jewish cantor as of an Orthodox priest, in music that called to mind the cello solos of Ernest Bloch. When the full choir entered, the harmony was modal and mystic, a solemn dialogue between cello and choir. A very moving piece, its intensity delivered a catharsis that seemed at once to reach into the grave and into the hereafter. SCO Associate Composer Jay Capperauld’s setting of a Niall Campbell poem, ‘The Night Watch’, which followed without a break, convincingly captured the sensation of a father, half-woken by the cries of his baby son, comforting the babe as his own consciousness drifts between dreamscape and wakefulness. Melodically evocative of tenderness, it featured a really beautiful soprano solo and a well-built crescendo, with a satisfying and very lovely concluding cadence. It was obvious how much these performers love Capperauld’s music. As do I.
Paul Drayton’s 2019 arrangement of Vaughan Williams’ ‘The Lark Ascending’ for choir and solo violin was hitherto unknown to me and it is a gem. The orchestral parts of the 1921 version are rendered as vocables for the choir in the outer pastoral sections, while lines from the 1881 George Meredith poem which inspired the original 1914 violin-and-piano piece are sung in the central folksong-like section. The unchanged idyllic violin solo part was characterfully played by Gordon Bragg with rich colour and sensitivity. Only a month ago, we heard Stephanie Gonley in the 1921 version with the SCO proper. This was every bit as enjoyable, with even more of a chamber music feel. The most delicious choral pianissimo of the evening was heard just before the solo violin’s final ‘ascent’.
Solo cello next, with Philip Higham still out of sight at the back of the hall in more elegiac Tavener, this time his unaccompanied ‘Chant’ of 1995. A long sinuous melody seems to reach heavenwards with musical language that is as Eastern and spiritually contemplative as that of ‘Syvati’. Roxana Panufnik’s 2015 ‘Kyrie after Byrd’, which followed, is based on that of Byrd’s ‘Mass for 5 Voices’ but with very fluid 21st century harmonies, and with rich tonal colours and a wonderful sense of searching for harmonic resolution and ‘finding’ unexpected yet surprisingly satisfying ones. Fabulous.
The short and sweet choral setting of Psalm 150 which followed was by Edinburgh-based composer, teacher and conductor Andrew Carvel, who also sings in the tenor section of the SCO Chorus. The music was jaunty and syncopated and skipped along with an infectious sense of jollity. Very enjoyable.
The back cover of choral sheet music often advertises other available repertoire and, in that context and for quite a few years now, I have been seeing the Irish/Arab name Tarik O’Regan, without ever hearing a note of his music. Then, only 4 weeks ago, I caught a performance of his ‘Scattered Rhymes’ by the Singers of Dunedin Consort in St Andrews. And now, with the SCO Chorus in Stirling and in the manner of buses, another one came along, his 2006 work, ‘The Ecstasies Above’. It is a setting of all but one stanza of an Edgar Allen Poe lyric poem ‘Israfel’ descriptive of the angel of that name, his exquisite singing and heaven itself. The string quartet sat in front of the choir. String quartet, vocal octet and full chorus formed three antiphonal groups. Music that was meditative and sombre alternated with playful syncopated music that seemed to run free. Very sweet polyphony on the high voices preceded the final satisfying cadence.
This was my first time hearing the SCO Chorus live. I hope it won’t be too long before I catch them again. Scotland is very well served for choirs, professional, semi-professional and amateur. The SCO Chorus is definitely in the top echelon of orchestral choruses, with a taste for interesting alternative repertoire and the skill and dedication to bring it to top quality performance. Full marks from me.