Under conductor, Benjamin Rous, East Malling Singers have, in recent years, established their well-deserved credentials as a local choral society capable of tackling unusual and challenging works by composers such as Rachmaninov, Poulenc, Britten, Bernstein and Janacek. It was, therefore, interesting to see (and hear) how they would fare when it came to more conservative choral repertoire. On Saturday 12th November, EMS along with guest soloists and a small invitation orchestra, presented such a programme to a packed house at the Church of St. James the Great, East Malling.
Beginning with Handel’s ‘Zadok the Priest’ and Vivaldi’s ‘Gloria’, with an orchestral interlude of excerpts from Handel’s ‘Water Music’, EMS was able to show that they are just as able in standard repertoire. The choir sang with spirit and commitment and the enjoyment of the music-making was shared by all from the outset. However, there were minor blemishes: There was a tendency to ignore the full duration of shorter notes and subsequently, the rhythmic instability caused the tempi to be generally faster then they should be – this was particularly evident in the latter part of ‘Zadok the Priest’, thus putting pressure on the string players who were already struggling a little. But as I said, there was ample spirit in the performance, and this aspect of choral indiscipline can easy be ignored by the audience. Entries in the contrapuntal parts of the ‘Gloria’ were generally good, but I would have liked a bit more consonance to allow the attacks to be more evident and crisp. I particularly liked ‘Cum Sancto Spirito’.
Haydn’s ‘Nelson Mass’ was to follow after the interval. The Choir sang better in the second half, and despite a number of minor slips, the performance was convincing and engaging. I would have liked a little more attention to details in the score such as dynamic contrast. Also, a few of the weaker entries could have been avoided had there been more eyes on the conductor. But, again, there were enough positive aspects in the performance for the choir to feel mightily proud of their efforts.
The 4 young soloists were impressive. I particularly like Rachael Lloyd (mezzo soprano) who sang with assurance and gravity; and Lisa Crosato (soprano) who’s beautifully liquid legato singing was really quite appealing.
Congratulations to Benjamin Rous and the East Malling Singers for a highly successful and spirited evening of music making. I shall look forward to their future concerts.
Howard Wong
The concert opened with Bruckner's motet for unaccompanied choir, 'Locus Iste', a hushed and reverent piece. I have heard East Malling Singers do it before, and they sing it well.
Nick Bland then gave a very capable performance of a number of organ solos on the revamped 2-manual East Malling organ, starting with two well-known pieces by Handel and J.S.Bach, and then stretching the organ in three French pieces from the 19th and 20th centuries. These were well chosen, and consisted of a couple of loud stately pieces (grand choeur) by Alexandre Guilmant and Théodore Salomé, with a more contemplative 'Méditation' by Maurice Duruflé in between. Nick played them well.
These were followed by the early baroque setting of the psalm 'Beatus Vir' by Monteverdi for choir, accompanied by the organ. A very catchy piece, it is, apparently, much harder than it sounds. There were some hesitant entries and occasionally some singers 'helped along' others in a different part, to keep the momentum going. But the final 'Gloria' went well.
The second half of the concert was devoted to just one work, the 'Mass in D' by Dvorák. Not a well-known work (well, I did not know it!) but a good choice for an amateur choir, as it has no soloists, and is accompanied by an organ. It is Dvorák in his less nationalistic mood, and is a generally optimistic work, fairly concise, sonorous, and reminiscent of Schubert in places.As in many amateur choirs, the ladies outnumbered the men by more than 2 to 1, and this showed up in the occasional hesitant entries of the men in the quieter passages; but the build-ups were well managed and the choir made an impressive sound in the climaxes. The dynamics in the 'Credo' were well done, with good contrasts between the loud and soft passages. Similarly, the build up in the 'Agnus Dei' was good. It is a mostly quiet movement, and difficult for the choir. The quiet ending was quite magical, as shown by the long silence before the audience started the well-deserved applause.
All in all, a pleasant, not too demanding concert, with an interesting selection of music.
Tim Samuelson
What a treat! How exciting to attend a concert where there were not enough seats for the audience! People just kept coming and in spite of the best endeavours of the choir to make seats appear, as if by a miracle, it was still standing room only. And we were all so glad to be there, to hear an evening of wonderful music, in the beautiful setting of the Village Church, and to witness an event which should keep the Village talking for years to come.
I must confess a personal interest in the concert, so my review can hardly be totally objective. My daughter Hannah, the current leader of the Kent Youth Orchestra, was leading the Second Violins in this concert, and her friend and colleague at the Royal College of Music, Ben Hancox, leader of the Sacconi String Quartet in which she plays Second Violin, was Leader of the Orchestra. I also had a very small part in the preparation of the East Malling Singers, having had the pleasure of taking two of the early rehearsals.
There was a delay in starting the concert, which we had assumed was because the search for extra chairs had gone beyond the boundaries of East Malling. In the event, Benjamin Rous, the incomparable, youthful Music Director, had received the news of the death of his Grandmother, minutes before the performance. In the circumstances, he showed the greatest courage in going ahead with the performance and our hearts went out to him.
Vaughan Williams’ ecstatic evocation of the power of music, 'Serenade to Music', was given a winning performance. The young musicians of the orchestra (past and present members of the Kent Youth Orchestra) relished the shifting harmonies and gentle dissonances, but were unwilling to play really quietly, which is what is often required in this gorgeous music. The singers put across the words clearly and sang with good tone and near-perfect intonation. When taken up to the highest register, I felt that the sopranos and the soprano soloist needed a bit more confidence and projection but they gained in confidence as the piece went on and the whole choir sang with clarity and conviction, in what was a most moving performance.
The Elgar '‘Cello Concerto' is not a work to attempt without an outstanding soloist and, to be honest, not generally with a small and inexperienced orchestra. Nonetheless, we were not disappointed in the least, even though this was a big challenge for the young players. Jonathan Ayling makes a big, generous sound, and has the air of a young ‘cellist who is going places. His performance had considerable poise and he played with style and sensitivity, making light of the tremendous technical difficulty of this justly popular work. Ben Rous drew some exquisite accompanying from the orchestra, although there were one or two shaky moments.
After the interval, the orchestra was slimmed down for the 'St Nicolas@ Cantata by Benjamin Britten, and the singers were joined by the Kent Junior Chamber Choir, who were placed at the rear of the church. The tenor soloist was an exceptionally good choice: Paul Thompson has just the voice for the role. He is clearly an intelligent and thoughtful artist and had the right approach, successfully communicating the drama and the introspection of the role Benjamin Britten wrote for Peter Pears. Ben Hancox played the difficult violin solo in the first movement with a generous tone and faultless intonation.
The smaller orchestra of strings, piano and percussion accompanied the choir well, but would have benefited from longer rehearsal. The youngsters from the Kent Junior Chamber Choir were accompanied by the organ, and made a valiant attempt to master the complex harmony. They excelled in the great storm at sea, when St Nicolas’ ship begins to founder. The gentlemen of the East Malling Singers sang this movement excellently. We were all in awe of Paul Thompson, St Nicolas, as he calmed the wind and waves with the power of his near-unaccompanied prayer.
I should also mention that the "congregation" made a meaningful contribution to the performance by singing the two hymns with real commitment.
Congratulations to all involved in mounting such a brilliant evening and thanks to Ben Rous for inspiring the large forces and giving us a very special evening.
Anthony Dawson
I was delighted to be asked to review this concert which I greatly enjoyed. However, I must at the start declare a double interest - the conductor of East Malling Singers is a colleague of mine at the Blackheath Conservatoire of Music and the Arts and the cello soloist is my son. Having said that, I hope I can nevertheless remain reasonably objective after almost 40 years spent in the music business!
The juxtaposition of music by Bach and Tavener was a really imaginative piece of programme planning resulting in a varied and interesting evening of music making which was clearly hugely enjoyed by the large and supportive audience. The combination of choir and solo cello in Tavener's 'Svyati' is an unusual one, and the antiphony and balance between the two was sensitively and imaginatively handled. The partnership gave direction to the rest of the evening with cello solos interspersed between choral items.
The other key work in the programme was Bach's Motet 'Jesu, Priceless Treasure' written for five part unaccompanied choir. The six unaccompanied motets are challenging repertoire for any choir and this five part work with divided sopranos stretched the resources of the choir rather thinly. The absence of any respite in the form of solos, as in the cantatas, also makes heavy demands on the singers. Nevertheless they performed with commendable enthusiasm and determination, and evidently enjoyed the mastery which they had achieved of the contrapuntal lines and the satisfying sense of rhythmic impetus and musical direction.
Bach's first suite for unaccompanied cello in G major is a delightful work. The individual dance movements were beautifully characterised and the whole was played with an apparently effortless fluency and total engagement. The other cello solo, 'Thrinos', by Tavener is a lament written to commemorate the death of a close friend. Its repetitive phrases and gradual ascent through the whole cello range to a final tiny thread of sound, creates a moving image of the song of mourning chanted over the dead body in the house of a close friend. Jonathan makes a lovely sound and this was a moving performance.
The concert began with two anthems by Bach and a Tavener 'Funeral Ikos'. Here the choir was at its best with secure pitching, nicely balanced part singing and a rich palette of colours. The anthems had an excellent sense of phrase and line whilst the Tavener captured that curiously static quality which owes much to the Greek Orthodox tradition and is probably best known from the Song of Athene used for the procession of pall bearers at the funeral of the late Princess of Wales.
Tavener's 'Magnificat' and 'Nunc Dimittis' were a little less secure and it may well be that the choir will return to these pieces at a later stage to build on the major achievements which they have already made in coming to terms with the considerable demands of this repertoire. However the fun arrangement of Bach's 'Air on a G string' for choir and cello swung the audience happily into a very social interval where performers and audience mingled to celebrate the joy of an evening spent in making and sharing music in their local community.
The whole evening was masterminded and directed by Benjamin Rous, the choir's conductor, with a sure sense of occasion, first rate musicianship and a fluent conducting technique. He clearly inspires a high level of commitment and enthusiasm in his choir who respond eagerly to his creative energy and total engagement. This is a partnership to watch flower and develop.
Marjorie Ayling
The spring concert provided a very varied fare of music that was largely off the beaten track. The themes were music of the renaissance and earlier, music featuring trombones and their ancestor, and counterpointing this, the alto saxophone played by the conductor's brother, Joseph Rous.
East Malling Singers started their programme with the motet 'O quam gloriosum' by Tomás Luis de Victoria in which the singers were accompanied by 3 sackbuts, which added a wonderfully rich sonority. We learned that the sackbut first appeared in about 1460, and was already a virtually perfect instument. It's evolution to the modern trombone has only involved a widening of the bore and a larger bell to increase the volume. The elegant and less overpowering sackbut blends wonderfully with voices, and was much used for this purpose in the 16th century.The sackbuts were featured on their own in two interludes, the better known of which was 'Pastime with good Companye', first in its simple form and then developed into a type of fantasia. This is attibuted to Henry VIII, himself a fine musician. If he claimed to have written it, well, one would not disagree with the monarch in those days. The performances were good, with crisp tonguing and phrasing. The sackbuts also accompanied the singers in Giovanni Gabrieli's 'O Magnum Mysterium'. The hushed opening took time to come together, but the triumphal alleluias at the end came off well.
In between the larger items, a smaller group from EMS gave stylish performances of two unaccompanied madrigals from about 1600; John Bennet's 'Weep, O mine eyes', and John Wilbye's 'Adieu, sweet Amaryllis', two pieces of gentle melancholy that Tudor composers enjoyed writing so much.
The idea of a saxophone improvising over unaccompanied choral music was the basis of the very successful recording, 'Officium' by Jan Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble. This idea was taken up by EMS in an anonymous 'Alleluia' and in Guillaume Dufay's 'Ave Regina Caelorum', to the improvisations of Joseph Rous, placed strategically at the other end of the Church. I felt that these were less successful than the 'Officium' pieces that I have heard. Although both choir and saxophone performed well here, the combination of mediaeval music with its unfamiliar harmonies and the idioms of the modern saxophone gave rather a weird effect. I think that one needs more chordally straightforward motetts to appreciate the saxophone fully as it weaves its way in and out of the harmony. In between the two pieces, Joseph played an 'interlude' for unaccompanied saxophone composed by Ben, which was a bit like an escaped movement from Benjamin Britten's 'Metamorphoses after Ovid' (for unaccompanied oboe).
The final item of the first half was a setting of the 'Gloria' by the 15th century Dufay, a much more up-beat piece, accompanied by two sackbuts bouncing echoing phrases from one side to the other like pingpong balls.
After the interval, EMS performed two pieces from the Russian Orthodox liturgy, 'The Lord's Prayer' by Anton Arensky, and the 'Cherubic Hymn' by Mikhail Glinka. It was good to hear these rarely performed pieces, and the performances were confident with sections impressively chanted in Russian by Ben. A number of Russian composers of the period, including Tchaikovsky and Balakirev wrote settings of the Orthodox liturgy (all unaccompanied, as is the custom), and these are very different from the better known compositions. Between these two pieces was a performance of John Tavener's 'Song for Athene', very much influenced by Russian Orthodox music, with long held notes by the second basses providing a drone.
The two Rous boys then played two pieces for saxophone and piano as a plaintive and expressive interlude. First John Dowland's 'Flow my tears' and then Rakhmaninov's 'Vocalise', both quite well known pieces, and even though composed about 300 years apart by composers of different nationalities, inhabiting the same melancholy sound world.
The final items were 5 motets by Anton Bruckner, well performed, as the East Malling Singers had really got into their stride. Although written in the 19th century, these pieces harken back to the earlier music of the first half, albeit with more romantic harmonies. Two of the pieces were accompanied by Laura Sherlock, Kate Rockett and Magnus Dearness who had exchanged their sackbuts for the more modern trombones but playing them in a clean style unvulgarized by the excesses of 20th century trombone playing. With the final piece 'Ecce Sacerdos', the impressive opening recalled the Bruckner of the symphonies. This final piece is at the end of a long tradition stretching back to the Victoria and Gabrieli of the first half, and completing a varied and imaginative evening of music.
Tim Samuelson
The Church of St. James the Great has hosted East Malling Singers' concerts for many years. There have not been many occasions when spare seating has been dusted off to accommodate an appreciative audience, but this happened on 30th September for a performance of Pergolesi's 'Stabat Mater' and Fauré's 'Requiem'. Those sitting on wooden and plastic chairs alike were rewarded with a very pleasing performance.
The 'Requiem' is so well known that one often forgets the seriousness of the Requiem Mass text. East Malling Singers however sang with a delicacy appropriate to the work to produce a restful but serious performance. All voices in this choir of about 45 members sang elegantly, and with colour and dynamism in response to the clear direction of their conductor Benjamin Rous. Exposed passages were approached sensitively, especially where the numbers of individuals singing each part could have resulted in imbalance.
The choir was underpinned by an orchestra of very high standard and young soloists (Kathryn Hannah and Julian Hubbard) gleaned from local sources.
Many older faces in the choir continue to be inspired in all ways and that inspiration has subsequently brought new blood and an exciting symbiosos between the singers and their conductor.
Pia Alexandre
As a special millennium event East Malling Singers hosted a "come and sing" performance of Handel's best known oratorio on Saturday 13 May. Fairly unusually, they decided to perform all of the choruses in this complete edition. This was the first event of this type with Benjamin Rous who was recently appointed conductor of the singers.
The chorus consisted of the East Malling Singers together with representatives from about 20 local choirs, and even 2 visitors form the Netherlands, and rehearsed during the afternoon. The performance started at 6.30pm with a crisp rendition of the overture by a small band consisting of strings (about 2 to a part) with 2 oboes, bassoon and organ.
When the large choir came in with 'and the glory of the lord' after the opening tenor solo, the full sound was most impressive. Orchestra and soloists appeared to be young professionals and gave assured performances. All of the soloists (Briony Lang, Rachael Lloyd, Robert Davies and Benjamin Davies) were very good, with clear diction and fresh young voices. The orchestral playing was good, and the trumpets were very effective in the few numbers in which Handel included them. The rarely performed 'if God be for us' included a violin obligato beautifully played by the leader of the orchestra Michelle Marsh.
Inevitably with such a short rehearsal time for a performance of this length, some of the more awkward entries were a bit hesitant, but with Benjamin's competent conducting, the chorus made quick recoveries.
All in all it was a great evening, and the overall spirit of the event was excellent, and a considerable achievement for a village choir.
Tim Samuelson