Garleton Singers: Spring Concert

St Mary’s Parish Church, Haddington,  23/3/25

Garleton Singers; Stephen Doughty (conductor); Meadows Chamber Orchestra; Christian Schneeberger (tenor); Phil Gault (baritone)

The night of 23rd March brought Haddington-based choral group the Garleton Singers to their ‘home turf’ (and much loved Lammermuir Festival venue) of St Mary’s Parish Church for the second of two performances of their Spring Concert under the direction of Stephen Doughty.  The Meadows Chamber Orchestra provided the instrumental accompaniment, as well as performing Wagner’s ‘Siegfried Idyll’. The two choral works that opened and concluded the programme respectively were Puccini’s ‘Messa di Gloria’ and Elaine Hagenberg’s ‘Illuminare’.  I was pleased to see over 30 seats allocated to instrumentalists, promising a richer orchestral sound (though it was original 13-part version of the Wagner that we heard). The other two pieces were first hearings for this reviewer.  Attendance was very satisfactory.  Stephen introduced the programme with his customary genial wit.

Puccini’s 1880 Messa is a youthful graduation piece pre-dating his operas, and as such is less overtly operatic than, for instance, Verdi’s Requiem.  That said, the quality of the writing for voices and orchestra is really excellent, while the melodies and harmonies are recognisable as those of the Puccini of the earlier operas. Less familiar is the liturgical counterpoint, which I have to say is very skilfully worked. There were solo parts for two guests, tenor Christian Schneeberger and baritone Phil Gault (both were in the Chorus of Scottish Opera’s recent production of ‘The Makropulos Affair’).  The folklore of string players often bemoans the lack of empathy of keyboard-playing composers, and indeed organist Puccini’s Kyrie opens with an exposed entr’acte-like string introduction in an awkward key, which did challenge the intonation of the violins in particular.  The full orchestral colour opened out with male voices in ‘Christe eleison’, while a lovely trumpet cadence concluded.  The episodic Gloria started with a tripping, joyful dance, with a more devout ‘et in terra pax’ to follow.  A delicious interlude with tremolo violins and wind figures led to the tenor’s first solo ‘gratias agimus tibi’, beautifully shaped and expressive. The choir’s ‘Domine Deus’ was waltzlike, while their ‘Qui tollis peccata mundi’ was a march of the faithful, with a big fervent climax. Still marching, but with brass support and piccolo trills, the triumphant ‘Quoniam’ led to a set of big chords, before the magnificent fugal ‘Cum Sancto Spirito’ brought the Gloria to a conclusion.  Easy to see why the sobriquet ‘Messa di Gloria’ stuck.  For the ‘Credo’, gravitas is the watchword, the tone epic and declarative, the key minor. The tenor’s ‘Et incarnatus est’ was supported and answered by choral comments.  But it was the minor-key drama of the baritone’s ‘Crucifixus’, accusatory and grief-laden, with the lower strings adding to the sense of woe, that was the highlight of the Credo for me – very operatic.  An orchestral crescendo built to the dramatic awe-inspiring ‘et resurrexit’, delaying the major key change until the concluding ‘et vitam’.  Fabulous.  The ‘Sanctus’, comparatively brief, started dramatically tutti and featured a lovely triple-time ‘Benedictus’ for baritone in the middle.  The simpler, antiphonal ‘Agnus Dei’, also in 3, consisted of first tenor solo, then baritone, and then both being answered by choral responses. The two soloists, in exquisite harmony, sang ‘dona nobis pacem’, bringing the Messa to its peaceful conclusion. A super piece, given a persuasive outing.

After the interval, the Wagner began with lovely warm string sound, building to the first climax with perfect dynamic balance.  Hard to credit that the ‘Siegfried’ of the title was the composer’s baby son, not the hero of the Ring opera premiered 6 years later. But the themes of the 1870 Idyll do appear in the opera, so it is fair to assume that the two were connected in the composer’s mind. The playful duet of horn and clarinet in the Idyll finds an echo in that of the young hero and the Vögelein in the opera, and there are further echoes in the orchestral interlude known as ‘Siegfried’s Rhine Journey’.  String intonation in the transition to the final section was a trifle wayward, but overall it was a delightful interpretation of a great favourite.  Eschewing exaggerated portamento in the yearning cadences of the conclusion was a welcome restraint and a satisfying avoidance of quasi-Viennese schmaltz, which I agree has no place in Wagner.

Stephen Doughty told the audience of how, often when seeking unusual pieces to include in a programme, a likely candidate in a publisher’s catalogue turns out to be fictitious, having been out of repertoire for so long that nobody knows where to locate the music.  By magnificent contrast, he said,  Elaine Hagenberg’s ‘Illuminare’, a sequence of 5 songs for choir and orchestra about the triumph of light over darkness, has racked up literally hundreds of performances worldwide since its composition in 2023.  It is easy to see why.  The music has an immediate appeal, with melody, harmony and rhythmic vitality grabbing and holding the attention and heart of the listener, while a coherent and ingenious musical logic captivates the head.  The ternary form first song, a reel-like joyous dance with a calmer central section, set the mood, not unlike Karl Jenkins.  In the second song in triple-time, a mood of delicate tenderness is evoked by a delicious folksong-like melody, first on women’s voices, then men’s, then both together, a solo violin in the texture adding an extra layer of sweetness.  Night fights back in the third song, a melancholy introduction overtaken by a brutal and violent rhythmic central section, the bass drum an extra layer of menace.  The fourth song, in 4, felt more prayerful with a sense of abiding hope.  The music was very filmic, in the manner of the closing credits of a long saga, ordeal or struggle against the odds.  In the final song, a Copland-like sound world spoke of triumphant hopefulness, suffused with radiant light.  This was a revelatory performance, awarding the undoubted masterpiece of accompanied choral writing the utmost advocacy.  Conductor, instrumentalists and chorus were ‘in the zone’ and took the audience with them.  Thoroughly excellent.