Gloucester 2010 - 3 Choirs Festival

Gloucester 2010, the hip new tag for the 3 Choirs Festival, which started in 1719. The longest-running music festival in the world!  It began as a meeting of the choirs of the cathedrals of Gloucester, Hereford and Worcester.and has shaped the course of English music. The massed choir tradition, the genteel propriety, the jolly unassuming mentality, all these threads flow from the 3 Choirs ethos.

The photo shows the fan vaulting in Gloucester Cathedral. There's plenty to look at too. Indeed churches are best seen at night, when shadows and light accentuate the stonework.

Every year, 3 Choirs opens with a church service, because piety is fundamental to the 3 Choirs purpose, though it's genuine piety, they don't force it on anyone else. This is the Holy Grail of religious singing. Try and catch the Complines, Evensongs, and Eucharists, because these are authentic, sung by people who believe. For people like me it's a kind of secular worship, but for many 3 Choirs people, it's central to their lives.

Elgar, of course, was a Catholic, at a time when Catholicism certainly wasn't Establishment, but 3 Choirs was part of his life, as he himself is central to the 3 Choirs Festival. This year The Kingdom on 7th August. This piece suffers sloppy performance, so avoid most "local" versions and go for the ultimate best, which is 3 Choirs. This will be spectacular, as they pull out all the stops for Elgar. Soloists are Roderick Williams, Adrian Thompson, Susan Gritton, Pamela Helen Stephen.  I'm sitting behind stage and choirs to be "within" the atmosphere.

Sunday of course is one of the big social days, with religious services as music, and hearty roast lunch. Oddly enough the big evening concert is Mahler 2, obviously chosen for the massed voices parts.  Of course M2 is spiritual, but fundamentally Mahler's mindset is too quirky to really fit group worship. Besides Evensong will be Finzi, Lo, the Full Final Sacrifice, which should be wonderful.

Gloucester 2010 will be important too because they're featuring early music in-depth. The Pipe and Tabor Society is hosting several events, Venetian and Renaissance and early English music, including a talk on one of the earliest notated carols, with origins in Gloucester itself.

Because I left it too late, I can't get to Ian Venables' talk on the orchestral music of Ivor Gurney - front line, first person research, as Venables, a good composer in his own right, is a Gurney devotee. Frustrating as anything, because it follows the Gurney Society Lunch, where all the serious fans will be. After that, a concert where Gurney's A Gloucestershire Rhapsody, Mendelssohn "Scottish" and Schumann Piano Concerto . Martyn Brabbins conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra. In London this would be a big draw,  yet here it's just one of many gems. In the evening, Monteverdi L'Orfeo.

Pity they didn't switch Monteverdi with the concert on Fri 13th which includes Gurney's rarely heard The Trumpet, and Finzi's Intimations of Immortality, with James Gilchrist, who sings it better than anyone else.  But maybe that's because the concert includes Elgar's Sea Pictures and it's Elgar Day, with talks, and the Elgar Society Lunch (important social event).

Many people who go to 3 Choirs stay the whole time, so mix and match is a good idea, but for others, it's a long drive, so concentrating connected works is better for them. For example, I'd love to go to the Roderick Williams concert on Saturday morning, but it will mean staying overnight, which is pricey. He's singing Finzi, Butterworth, Gurney, Venables and Moeran. He's just recorded a Butterworth CD with the Sussex songs. I'm looking forward to that, even though I loved Mark Stone's pioneer recording.

3 Choirs is a must if you've any interest in English music, medieval to modern. Hearing lesser known composers like Joubert (who isn't "that" lesser known, Gilchrist has recorded his songs) at 3 Choirs puts their work into context. Those who go to 3 Choirs for the whole week and soak up the social side and history know what they're doing.

This year, 3 Choirs introduces massive technological revolution - online booking for the first time! Yow! The bad news is that it's bug ridden, and no doubt they'll streamline it for next year. But it's a step in the right direction. Still, the fact that the system's so clumsy is actually quite charming, and says a lot about the innocence of 3 Choirs, which is a good thing. You can get a whiff of the old system when you hear the recorded message on the phone. Miss Marple, tweed suits, sensible virgins cycling to church through country lanes etc. .That England still does exist, so savour it while you can. PLEASE READ my more detailed reviews and articles on Gurney, Parry, Finzi, Elgar Butterworth and 3 Choirs. Use search or labels at right

A Winterreise Adventure

Last night I didn't just talk Winterreise, I lived it. Just as we left James Gilchrist's recital at Kings Place it started to snow. Atmospheric, since it hardly ever snows in London.

"You call that snow," sniffed my Siberian friend. But we get excited because it only snows (or slushes) maybe once every 5 years and last year was the first serious snow for 20 years. So cheerfully we set forth. As soon as we reached the motorway, out of the dark came a sudden blizzard, which dropped 20cm of snow in 90 minutes. Because no-one is used to such conditions, it was mayhem.The wind howled like in a typhoon, except that it was freezing, throwing sheets of snow against the windscreen. Complete whiteout. Passing a big crash on the other side (4 cars 1 truck) we decided to call it quits, and as soon as we could left the car which couldn't go up a hill, and walked the rest of the way.

Scary as this journey was, it was a good experience. Everyone knows the words, but what is the deeper sensation? A singer I knew once walked across the country carrying a backpack, giving Winterreise recitals along the way. It made him feel the music more because he'd struggled on the way. For me, the blizzard made me feel how we take things for granted. The man in Winterreise looks at familiar landmarks, but they're no longer what they were.

Snow absorbs sound, but just as it deadens background hum, it lets details spring out in stark contrast. One of Jorma Hynninen's recordings captures this effect. He sings quietly, mutedly, yet sharpens certain passages : the black crow against white clouds, pregnant with snow. The post horn sounds over long distances because it doesn't blend into the background.

Snow transforms. Part of my journey went through an industrial slum, but now it was covered with a pure, white blanket. Even the metal barriers and dustbins looked magical. The man in Winterreise's feelings are painful because they're raw. As he proceeds, they change. By the end, the girl is left behind in more ways than one. Even in his deepest anguish, the man sees beauty in the landscape around him. Listen to that piano part, the images of water! Beneath the frozen ice, the river surges. Melting droplets trickle, sharp figures sparkle, like icicles. Once I heard Imogen Cooper play Winterreise so magically, it made you "feel" the cold, the dark and the flashes of light. Wolfgang Holzmair seemed to be listening, taking in what nature might have to tell the man, even though he can't quite understand.

Landscape as a mirror of emotion: an aspect of Winterreise often overlooked when we focus on the pain and intensity. As James Gilchrist said before the concert, the protagonist goes through a huge range of feelings, from bitter anger to lyrical tenderness. And in this performance, with Anna Tilbrook as pianist, he certainly showed the range of feelings involved.

Landscape in the Romantic imagination is also part of meaning. Sometimes the song Die Nebensonnen has been dismissed as evidence that the man on the journey "must" be insane because he sees three suns in the sky and relates them to his lover's eyes. On the contrary, in extreme cold, the light of the sun can refract, so it appears as multiple images. I chose this photo because it captures the way the sun in dense blizzard conditions glows with an unnatural brightness: the glare can make you snowblind. It's a natural phenomenom, but hyper real and piercing. So what, then, does the Leiermann signify? Is he an illusion or a real beggar, feral, like the deer whose tracks the man follows in the beginning. This aspect of interpretation can impact on performance.

And snow can be dangerous. Someone was supposedly killed in the accident I passed. If the man in Winterreise was bent on death, all he had to do was lie under the Lindenbaum and the cold would soon lull him forever. Significantly, he passes the graveyard and goes beyond. Maybe the man does die, or go mad, but one surprising aspect of the cycle is that he chooses to keep moving on, even though it wouldn't take much effort for him to let the snow end his troubles.

As for the recital? Thoroughly satisying! Gilchrist doesn't have one of those lusciously creamy voices that draw attention to their own beauty at the expense of the music. If it's not a glorious instrument, though, he uses it intelligently, so you're drawn to what the music might mean. There are hundreds of Winterreises to listen to, but Gilchrist makes his personal and direct.

Someone told me that this concert was being recorded for CD. The acoustic at Hall One at Kings Place is so perfect that it's a disadvantage. It's so clear that it can expose all but the best. Yet, because the hall is small, the biggest names don't often appear. So using Kings Place for making recordings offers benefits to audiences and gives recordings a nice "live" ambience.

Please see my other posts on Gilchrist, Schubert and Kings Place
Photo credit

James Gilchrist Die Schöne Müllerin

James Gilchrist is singing Winterreise at Kings Place on Thursday 17th - the highlight of the month for me. Should be atmospheric, since the weather's turning cold and the room at Kings Place is ideal for Lieder. He's very good indeed, and Winterreise suits his voice and style.

There are dozens of recordings of Die Schöne Müllerin, but this new CD by James Gilchrist stands out from the competition because it’s distinctive, and interpretation of great insight and sensitivity. The key to singing Lieder is understanding what it means. I don't like "operatic" versions which distance the singer from the rawness of the experience, and I don't like smooth versions which blank out the knots. Gilchrist may not be in the league of Schreier, Wunderlich or Goerne, but his version is psychologically well observed and is a significant contribution, even if you have dozens of recordings already.

Die Schöne Müllerin is filled with sunny, pastoral images, but it isn’t a pretty story. Gilchrist and Tilbrook demonstrate how Schubert builds the young miller’s hyperactive extremes into the music. Long before psychology taught us about mental illness, Schubert observed with almost clinically observed accuracy. Gilchrist and his pianist Anna Tilbrook observe the startling contrasts in the music. The young miller is unbalanced. He has violent mood swings, hears voices and kills himself when reality doesn’t match his delusions. Now he might be diagnosed bi-polar.

Disturbed as the miller may be, Gilchrist doesn’t judge. Indeed, this is a surprisingly sympathetic portrayal, for Gilchrist takes the young man on his own terms. When the miller is happy, Gilchrist’s voice lights up with glee. When harsh truth encroaches, Gilchrist’s tone hardens, reflecting the young man’s bitterness. You can hear the manic energy that propels Das Wandern, the piano part relentless beating out the steady rhythm. When the miller spots the mill in Halt!, Gilchrist’s voices rises with excitement. In Mein! – note the exclamation marks – the miller is so sure he’s go the girl that his joy reaches fever pitch.

Yet this brightness is unnatural. Again, this is psychologically astute, for in the young miller’s mind there are no shadows, only the glow of madness. When it dawns on him that the girl might fancy someone else, his heightened mood switches to anger. One moment he sings of Die liebe Farbe (the beloved colour), and the next it’s Die böse Farbe (the hated colour). Gilchrist’s voice takes on a harsh edge which is perfect in the circumstances. In a cycle like this, emotional truth is far more important than superficial prettiness. The spirit of the brook is speaking through the young man, and it’s malevolent, like a supernatural demon.

Gradually the spirit of the brook takes control, submerging the young miller long before he drowns in its depths. Unable to resist, the lad talks to the brook. In Der Müller und die Bach, Gilchrist pauses imperceptibly, as if he’s really listening to another entity. It’s eerie. Tilbrook’s assertive style works well, because the brook is in control now. Compare the meekness of the miller’s lines with the dominance of the piano part. “Du meinst es so gut” (you mean so well) the boy tells the brook, unconcerned that suicide is an extreme solution to being jilted. In fact, he probably doesn’t register on her radar.

At last, he drowns himself, merging with the spirit of the brook. “Böses Mägdelein”, Gilchrist snarls. Even though the boy is past caring, the brook remains vindictive because it’s irrational. Even when the boy is dead, the brook remains so manipulative that it tries to control the girl. Gilchrist and Tilbrook reach the psychological core of this remarkable song cycle, yet do so with surprising humanity. Deluded as he was, they make you identify with the boy’s vulnerability. When he’s destroyed, his fate seems horribly unfair.

The clarity of this performance is matched by the clarity of the translation by Richard Stokes. It’s lucid and direct, a bracing antidote to the devious spirit of the brook. There are many new recordings of this cycle, every year, some more aggressively marketed than others. This recording, by the small independent label Orchid Classics, deserves more attention because it’s so original. These days huge multinationals are creating a monomarket, squeezing out innovation, so it's important to support lively small independents like Orchid. And with this DSM, you're getting something very original, too.

I've been following Gilchrist's career since first hearing him at Ludlow way out in rural Shropshire at the English Song Weekend organized by Finzi Friends. This is "the" major English song festival, the biggest one of all. This year's programme is just out so I'll write about it shgortly This year really is the best ever. I've heard Gilchrist sing both DSM and Winterreise before - follow the labels on right to read about him at Oxford last year.

Since 1715, the Three Choirs Festival

The 3 Choirs Festival started around 1715. So this year is Festival number 284!

Three Choirs came about when the choirs of three cathedrals, Hereford, Worcester and Gloucester, agreed to come together and sing in each other's home city every year. Who is the man in the statue, with the bike? No less than Edward Elgar, born in Worcester, and a regular visitor to the Festival most of his adult life.

Over the last three centuries, the Festival has been the epicentre of the British choral tradition. Indeed, its influence is so great that it has shaped the very nature of British music. In the 19th century, Germans used to call Britain Das Land ohne Musik because the British didn't do symphonies or operas. But think Handel, Mendelsssohn, Bach, and the whole perspective changes. We wouldn't have had Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Finzi etc without that tradition. It's Three Choirs that defines so much of the British musical heritage. For that reason alone, visiting at least once connects to the ambience.

This year's Festival is in Hereford, starting 8 August, with Elgar's Dream of Gerontius. This is always a festival keynote, carrying all kinds of emotional resonance. Geraint Bowen, the Festival director. conducts the Philharmonia and a cast including Catherine Wyn-Rogers. It's followed by a fireworks display and a reception in the Bishop's Palace Gardens, making the most of the long summer evening. This evening is the biggie everyone goes to, so book early.

Sunday morning starts with Haydn's Heiligemesse and ends with a very late night (2215hr!) Happy Hour with the Lay Clerks where the Cathdral singers let it hang out with songs old and new. Monday's big evening concert includes Haydn, Finzi and Britten, who inhabited a completely different world from Three Choirs, though he is known to have attended. The late night concert is interesting - the Philharmonia Brass play Gabrieli and Michael Berkeley.

Vivaldi's Four Seasons appears earlier in the programme, but Haydn's Four Seasons on Tuesday 11th will be a better treat. Performers include James Gilchrist, Roderick Williams, and Gillian Keith. I've heard them sing this in London with another orchestra and conductor, so it should be very good indeed. Next night it's Handel, Israel in Egypt, in a new edition by Stephen Layton, who conducts. Iestyn Davies sings! Handel operas, for me, work well when there's something to look at. Interestingly, when Mendelssohn conducted this in 1833, he staged it, even using transparencies of Durer and Raphael.) The last night is a famous and much enjoyed communal song fest, but the next to last night is Mendelssohn's Elijah. Unlike so many choral bonanzas, there are parts in this where really top class singing makes all the difference. Sarah Fox gets to do the killer high parts! That's why Three Choirs is way above the "average" choir festival. The singing here is altogether another league.

Three Choirs isn't just song though. Lots of other music to keep you busy all day, every day, and talks, generally of a high calibre. Plenty of open-air Shakespeare performances too. The Festival is also a big social occasion for those into British music – everyone converges for reunions like the Elgar, RVW and Finzi societies etc. Many people stay all week and party because this is a lovely, atmospheric part of England, still rural in many places. Lots of excursions if you travel by car (but parking in town is difficult) Plus, no likelihood of snow in August.

http://www.3choirs.org/home.html
(photo above by Tony Hodges on flickr)