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'Avin' it large, in B Minor
Sunday, 19 November 2006 18:53I've just got back from a very enjoyable performance of Bach's B Minor Mass at Leeds University's Great Hall, which I attended in the company of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
big_daz. Damn, but it's powerful stuff. We were sitting no more than 15 metres from a choir some 60 strong, and they certainly packed a punch.
The singers were mainly students of the School of Music, backed up by the Leeds Baroque Choir (whose numbers include my head of department!) and Orchestra. As such, some aspects of the performance were a little ropey, but then again it was a great opportunity to hear rising young stars. I especially liked the alto soloist, Beth Mackay, who did great credit to my favourite movement from the B Minor Mass - the 'Agnus Dei'.
And there were some interesting aspects to the performance, too. Firstly, two of the choruses ('Cum Sancto Spiritu' and the 'Sanctus') were taken at almost double their usual speed - apparently, according to the pre-concert talk, to bring out their use of forms usually associated with dance music; especially triplets. I wasn't convinced, because it made it difficult for the choir to articulate all the individual notes properly, and consequently it sounded as though some of them were falling over one another. But an interesting experiment, nonetheless. Secondly, although most choruses were taken by the full choir, some parts of some of them were stripped down to only one voice per line - this time apparently to bring out the fine details of their more complicated contrapuntal texture. Again, it didn't quite work, this time because the students chosen for these sections weren't quite up to the job, especially when standing on the other side of the orchestra from the audience. But it was an interesting compromise between the 'large' sound of the full choir and the precision of one-voice-to-a-part, which I think could work very effectively with better singers.
Anyway, a bit of Bach of a weekend is always a bonus, especially since I don't think I've seen the B Minor Mass in performance for about 6 or 7 years now. Definitely an afternoon well spent.
And before I go: ( what tarot card am I? )
That all sounds slightly worrying, actually...! Oh well, it's only a meme - right?
big_daz. Damn, but it's powerful stuff. We were sitting no more than 15 metres from a choir some 60 strong, and they certainly packed a punch.The singers were mainly students of the School of Music, backed up by the Leeds Baroque Choir (whose numbers include my head of department!) and Orchestra. As such, some aspects of the performance were a little ropey, but then again it was a great opportunity to hear rising young stars. I especially liked the alto soloist, Beth Mackay, who did great credit to my favourite movement from the B Minor Mass - the 'Agnus Dei'.
And there were some interesting aspects to the performance, too. Firstly, two of the choruses ('Cum Sancto Spiritu' and the 'Sanctus') were taken at almost double their usual speed - apparently, according to the pre-concert talk, to bring out their use of forms usually associated with dance music; especially triplets. I wasn't convinced, because it made it difficult for the choir to articulate all the individual notes properly, and consequently it sounded as though some of them were falling over one another. But an interesting experiment, nonetheless. Secondly, although most choruses were taken by the full choir, some parts of some of them were stripped down to only one voice per line - this time apparently to bring out the fine details of their more complicated contrapuntal texture. Again, it didn't quite work, this time because the students chosen for these sections weren't quite up to the job, especially when standing on the other side of the orchestra from the audience. But it was an interesting compromise between the 'large' sound of the full choir and the precision of one-voice-to-a-part, which I think could work very effectively with better singers.
Anyway, a bit of Bach of a weekend is always a bonus, especially since I don't think I've seen the B Minor Mass in performance for about 6 or 7 years now. Definitely an afternoon well spent.
And before I go: ( what tarot card am I? )
That all sounds slightly worrying, actually...! Oh well, it's only a meme - right?
