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[TrebleVoices]

From one gathering of choristers to another!

Last night was the Cathedral Choristers of Britain in concert in Liverpool Anglican Cathedral.
I intend to write an in depth review, but first impression, fabulous! Such a treat to hear some of the best choristers from across Britain gathered together like that!

P3170450.JPG (673.17 KiB) Viewed 6660 times

P3170450.JPG (673.17 KiB) Viewed 6660 times

[TrebleVoices]

My finished article on the Cathedral Choristers of Britain concert.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1jiMY3 ... i_IYujimsD

[Yorkie]

Great review, thank you. Looks as if I missed out be not attending this one. I noticed a great mix of colours amongst the cassocks - any idea where the orange ones come from? I have to say though I'm surprised with your in depth knowledge that you haven't heard much Tavener; I love 'Hymn to the Mother' did those organ notes at the end surprise you ?

So, did you travel over from Germany just for this or are you over in the uK for a bit longer

[Surpinto]

Excellent review; thank you. Is the magazine formatting used because you intend to publish this in a larger periodical or online magazine? I saw that you wrote at the end that this review was written "in association with Chor Gesang – Das Musikmagazin" but I failed to find any written publications when searching that name.

[TrebleVoices]

Great review, thank you. Looks as if I missed out be not attending this one. I noticed a great mix of colours amongst the cassocks - any idea where the orange ones come from? I have to say though I'm surprised with your in depth knowledge that you haven't heard much Tavener; I love 'Hymn to the Mother' did those organ notes at the end surprise you ?

So, did you travel over from Germany just for this or are you over in the uK for a bit longer

I'm likely to be here a bit longer, yes. Given that I am the spawn of a Derbyshire lad and a Welsh dragon, I call this land home.

Tavener is one that every time I come across I enjoy, but I never seem to get round to listening to more of it.

The orange robes are light red, the lighting in the cathedral was extremely yellow! And yes, you should have attended, it was great!

Excellent review; thank you. Is the magazine formatting used because you intend to publish this in a larger periodical or online magazine? I saw that you wrote at the end that this review was written "in association with Chor Gesang – Das Musikmagazin" but I failed to find any written publications when searching that name.

It's formatted that way to encourage the eventual recipient to use it in that way. I wanted to include some photos and decided it was a nice way to do it. The review is on behalf of Chor Gesang, because that's who got me the invite to the reception with the free wine and prosecco...

I had intended to write it, send it and forget about it, as I'd got my free wine... but having put quite a few hours work into it, I'm now keen to see it read!

Sadly the only publication I might have got it published in directly was Vox Pueri - Das Knabenchormagazin, but after two print issues the founder moved on to other projects and it's now on indefinite hiatus. More's the pity!

If you haven't found any mention of Chor Gesang, you need to look a bit harder... like scroll up a few posts and look at filiarheni last post with the videos in it.

[Yorkie]

I'm likely to be here a bit longer, yes. Given that I am the spawn of a Derbyshire lad and a Welsh dragon, I call this land home.

Tavener is one that every time I come across I enjoy, but I never seem to get round to listening to more of it.

The orange robes are light red, the lighting in the cathedral was extremely yellow! And yes, you should have attended, it was great!

My mistake, the german tag at the end of the review had me fooled. See you in Arundel then!

[Surpinto]

It's formatted that way to encourage the eventual recipient to use it in that way. I wanted to include some photos and decided it was a nice way to do it. The review is on behalf of Chor Gesang, because that's who got me the invite to the reception with the free wine and prosecco...

I had intended to write it, send it and forget about it, as I'd got my free wine... but having put quite a few hours work into it, I'm now keen to see it read!

Sadly the only publication I might have got it published in directly was Vox Pueri - Das Knabenchormagazin, but after two print issues the founder moved on to other projects and it's now on indefinite hiatus. More's the pity!

If you haven't found any mention of Chor Gesang, you need to look a bit harder... like scroll up a few posts and look at filiarheni last post with the videos in it.

Oh ok. Well I do hope that you are successful in your efforts to publish your review As for Chor Gesang, yes I found the YouTube channel immediately and have watched videos from it on occasion in the past, but I had assumed (based on context) that Chor Gesung was publishing an online periodical magazine. That's why I said that I had "failed to find any written publications when searching that name" (emphasis added). Regardless, all is cleared up now.

[filiarheni]

I've just come home a few hours ago from a concert by The Choir of Trinity College Cambridge who performed a concert in St. Pantaleon in Cologne and I am absolutely stunned! That was a wonderful, very meditative concert, which I enormously enjoyed. I am so glad that I had discovered it just in time, 10 days ago. The concert announcements at these churches are very hidden.

20190707_224404 Programm TCC 2019-07-07 zhgk.jpg (125.64 KiB) Viewed 6424 times

20190707_224404 Programm TCC 2019-07-07 zhgk.jpg (125.64 KiB) Viewed 6424 times

It's a brilliant choir with a marvelous sound. Sometimes in the third part the - superb - sopranos were heard a tiny bit too loud here and there, but this is a luxury deduction. They sing with deep emotion and put finest nuances into their singing. Breathtaking! The acoustics in this church were ideal for them: not too much reverb, not too dry.

The last part of Parsons's Ave Maria was like bathing in sound. They have an extremely transparent sound, and in this part the voices sounded like flowing together without giving up the choir's transparency.

Their sound in "Thou knowest, Lord" was so gentle that it reminded me of that incredible gentleness of the Escolanía de Montserrat a few weeks ago.

In the programme, I discovered "Mother of God, here I stand", that made me so happy: Libera is with me in mind here! They sang it quite a bit faster than Libera in the first verse, then during the second they used much rubato (free in tempo, much pausing where the mood of the lyrics justified it), which made the song very personal and meaningful. It was a great interpretation and I had goosebumps through the whole song, which of course was very much related to the reminiscence of Libera. I was probably the only one in the well-filled church who had a double-enjoyment of that song! But I think that also with a more objective perspective than mine it was one of their best songs tonight.

Their dynamic spectrum is very wide. I loved their last note in "Richte mich, Gott". I didn't like the song itself too much, but that last note was a very long one and carried a crescendo from piano to fortissimo (or so it sounded) over the whole time, which couldn't have been executed more perfectly by the choir. I was very impressed.

I enjoyed the bass voices very much, and one song which I don't remember anymore contained an extremely deep bass note. It was already very long, but still not long enough for me.

The audience had been asked to clap only after a full block at been finished and this went surprisingly well. Only after "O magnum mysterium", a handful of people started clapping. If they felt so much need to express their appreciation that they forgot the request, I can relate to it, as this song was fantastic, too.

This concert was more than worth it to be attended.


This time I just intended to attend a concert and not write more than a tweet at most about it. But when a concert is so good, what shall I do. I should really undertake to go to bad concerts for a little while.

[Surpinto]

Great setlist and an enjoyable review. Thank you. Glad to hear that you enjoyed an excellent concert.

[Yorkie]

I've just come home a few hours ago from a concert by The Choir of Trinity College Cambridge who performed a concert in St. Pantaleon in Cologne and I am absolutely stunned! That was a wonderful, very meditative concert, which I enormously enjoyed. I am so glad that I had discovered it just in time, 10 days ago. The concert announcements at these churches are very hidden.

Thank you for your write up and it looks like a good set list. So, I have a very big questions for you - how do you rate the English choral scene/choirs compared to those in Germany. Obviously when it comes to classical music Germany is probably number one for the number and quality of its composers but how good are your choirs? What do you think of the quality of the British ones? In short which country sings best.

There's a tough one for you to ponder. No rush.

[filiarheni]

I have a very big questions for you - how do you rate the English choral scene/choirs compared to those in Germany. Obviously when it comes to classical music Germany is probably number one for the number and quality of its composers but how good are your choirs? What do you think of the quality of the British ones? In short which country sings best.

There's a tough one for you to ponder. No rush.

Interesting question, and actually I don't think that it's that tough to reply to, it's only tough for me to put it in words.

I'm not a friend of music competitions, because an objective judgment is hardly to achieve. Of course you can use certain hard criteria like sound balance, staying in pitch, dynamic range, etc., just technical ones and even expression. But what to weigh the most is individual I have observed. Music first and foremost applies to the senses and not to the brain and this results in a different emotional effect on everyone, which leads to the individual judgment. So that's a highly personal matter you can't measure, because your like or dislike, feeling good or worse when you hear music, is based on the sum of your personality, development, musical experience etc. I clearly prefer a performance, which may not be flawless in terms of technique, as long as it lives. What is the purpose of getting technical brilliance, when the choir (or whatever musician) sounds sterile? I don't trust many competitions because they tend to deny that individual effect, which for me is such an essential element of music.

We dispose of plenty of excellent choirs in Germany, just as the UK (the local choir life is very rich with professional, semi-professional and amateur choirs of all musical directions). However, in my opinion, differences in quality can't be made out with relation to their home country, but rather depend on the kind of music the choirs sing. For example, we can say that this or that choir is superb in singing Mozart or motets or jazz. When it comes e. g. to a Händel oratorio, I'd decide from choir to choir which one I prefer and not from country to country. Also, there is so much room for different interpretations of one and the same piece. It's really a matter of the choir/conductor, not of the country.

The above includes boys choirs. What I said about the subjective perception of music, I particularly recognise when I look at them. I love German folk songs, but they must be sung in a pristine way, simple, with a natural voice for me to enjoy them. I can't stand the artistic singing way of our famous boys choirs on these songs, because here it's, as I see it, overdone and does not match the nature of this music, and you'll never see me at a German boys choir concert where this kind of music predominates. It's hard for me to call a choir fantastic when in spite of their technical perfection I think they do not sing the music in the appropriate way. Technique isn't everything. It's fine to listen to their classical or sacred music though. (I still haven't dealt much with German boys choirs so far, so there's much to catch up with.)

I come from a mainly instrumental background, although I have loved singing myself since I was a little child, liked vocal music and sing in a choir myself. However, only after the discovery of Libera, I became aware of the British choir tradition. A new territory for me to explore and, at the moment, it possesses the number one rank in my musical interest. I'm very much attracted by the musical tradition of the English Cathedral music and a big part of my enjoyment while attending evensongs here in Germany comes from being related to that. I enjoy having British composers and British choirs united. So, my intense curiosity about British choirs also has subjective and not pure quality reasons. In addition, hearing native speakers sing in their language is "music" in my ear, too, and does contribute to my enjoyment.

I'm also extremely skeptical with remarks like: "This kind of music can/should only be sung by choirs of x." It's more: "I personally prefer x with this kind of music.", "I enjoy x the most." and so forth. Does a nation in any case understand its "own" composers' music better than all the others? I doubt it.

How subjective the reception a piece, a choir or a soloist is, we see all the time with Libera. There can be a general agreement about the quality of a choir, but still, I'd feel very uncomfortable with a statement like "country x tops country y in choral quality, period", because I'm convinced that this simply cannot legitimately be said. Too many sorts of choirs, too many different music styles to be so generalised. Good music / Well performed music always touches the soul, regardless the country. At the most, we can say that a country has a particularly high number of high quality choirs.

I don't know if my response will please you. However, I can reassure you that this is no diplomatic reply, but my sincere opinion, which I hope to have been able to put in words properly like I meant them.

[Yorkie]

I don't know if my response will please you. However, I can reassure you that this is no diplomatic reply, but my sincere opinion, which I hope to have been able to put in words properly like I meant them.

Well, you're no Kim Darroch that's for sure. I'll ask a different question then. Who are currently your three favourite (non-Libera) choirs?

[filiarheni]

Oh, how do you invent such difficult questions? Why not wipe the brackets out, so I can just say Libera, Libera and Libera?!

But okay, at least you said "currently", which makes it easier. Because I still feel being at the beginning of my choir journey and don't know enough choirs and enough of their music to have a real overview. But if you ask me which choir concert I'd attend in any case without having the slightest knowledge about the set list and travel for them and which choir I would recommend to someone not familiar with them without any restriction at all, that would be, in alphabetic order:

Escolanía de Montserrat - their singing touches my heart into its depth
Nidarosdomens Guttekor - they have a particularly warm sound
St. John's - they sound especially filigree, balanced, fine

These are choirs whose singing always moves me, uplifts my general mood and makes me feel warm, glad and confident inside and the basic feeling caused in me constantly obviously is my benchmark of which choir I like more and which less.

A decisive criterium for my liking is the naturalness of a choir's sound, not forced, just naturally flowing; artistic yes, but not artificial.

This is independent on my eagerness to listen to more British choirs, which also comes from my interest in the British music I mentioned above, very much referring to the British composers, about whom I hadn't heard much before. For example, I like that Trinity College Choir and was not at all disappointed, as you can well see in my review. I also like what I've heard by Winchester Cathedral Choir and will not forget King's College Choir as well as New York's St. Thomas, just to name examples.

And if you miss German choirs here: I have always been attracted by other countries' music and music in other languages, (while I feel very touched when a foreign choir sings in German). German at the moment seems so "normal" to me, so I'm looking for what I don't know yet. Perhaps one day I feel like exploring more of the German boys choir world, but right now I simply love to look across the border.

These were no easy things to write upon. Thank you for asking, this has, for the first time, made me reflect about what it is what I like and where it comes from. I know what I feel, but putting it in words is an entirely different matter.

And now let me return the questions to you: What are your own replies to your questions?

[Yorkie]

And now let me return the questions to you: What are your own replies to your questions?

That's not how it works; I ask the questions

Well my favourite to hear live is St John's. I have to confess that I don't get the chance to hear too many choirs at the moment due to other commitments so my favourite choir to listen to on CD is New College. Third place is tricky because it could be one of a few - Westminster (Abbey/Cathedral), Magdalen, St Thomas, Truro. Tricky.

[filiarheni]

That's not how it works; I ask the questions

Well my favourite to hear live is St John's. I have to confess that I don't get the chance to hear too many choirs at the moment due to other commitments so my favourite choir to listen to on CD is New College. Third place is tricky because it could be one of a few - Westminster (Abbey/Cathedral), Magdalen, St Thomas, Truro. Tricky.

Question set, question get.

I accept your reply to your second question. And now there remains the first one which country sings better (not: is liked best). I say it's impossible to wholeheartedly decide for one, because the matter is too diverse for a general judgement. What do you say?