Exhilaration and fear

My outing with NCO and choir in Llewellyn Hall is a highlight of my year and this was a doozy: Beethoven Missa Solemnis.  Not at all easy but with plenty of mates to tackle it with.  Not just one but two choirs.  I counted 148 listed in the program, 86 choristers, 57 instrumentalists, 4 solo singers and Louis as conductor but I know of one who had to pull out so perhaps 147 total for the afternoon performance.  Whatever, it was big and exciting and hugely demanding to boot.  Everyone agreed to that.  A scary-fast Gloria with unisons and fugues to melt over, and a few other fugues throughout.  Many notes on dense pages, even for our relatively clumsy bottom enders.  Exhilarating despite trepidation and occasional terror.  It's probably the most demanding part I've known for preparation and where fingering  and string choice was of the essence.  The fast lines were often twisted not scalar and basses had two octave jumps and sudden semiquaver lines at speed and all manner of tempo changes and demanding confidence on first-up quiet, long notes and then that odd whimper to end.  There were spots to relax, but always the awareness of coming demands.  But we did it and it was well done.  Apparently this was the first performance of this piece in Canberra since 1990.  One of the choir had sung in that!  Missa Solemnis was written after Symphony no. 9, so after Beethoven's magnum opus.  He was deaf by then and exploring religion through doubt and the words of the Catholic Mass.  All fascinating.  For the performers it was exhilarating, demanding, scary, all those things as well as an impressive performance and something worthy to remember.  Amusingly, I was down at Manuka today, the day after, hearing the bells of St Christopher's, honestly able to say I'd attended 3 masses in the last two days (2 rehearsals and one performance).  As for now, I'm looking forward to Tim's recording and a listen.  Thanks to all and especially our leader Louis.

Beethoven Missa Solemnis was performed at Llewellyn Hall by National Capital Orchestra with Canberra Choral Society and the Llewellyn Choir and singers Sarah Darnley-Stuart (soprano), Emma Mauch (alto), Ryan O'Donnell (tenor) and Stivenu Talei (bass).  Louis Sharpe (Director) conducted and Dan Walker (chorus master) prepared the vocals.

Haydn's Canberra Seasons

The concert was on 1 April so our practice in the morning, somewhat stilted and desperate, must have been a trick played on us, because the 3pm concert was an absolute blast.  This was NCO's annual get-together in Llewellyn Hall with CCS and a few singers out front and the music was Haydn The Seasons.  Now, this is a big work (a CSO member suggested "massive") and the orchestra practiced it for perhaps 8 weeks and only met with two of the singers on the Monday before the Saturday, and the other singer and choir only on the Friday night.  The arias and choral pieces were pretty much all there, but the repetitives were mostly removed, I guess to relieve the singers of such a massive task in preparation, and in a nifty and local way, they were replaced by a series of Canberra-related spoken word introductions form no other than Laura Tingle, ABC TV journo but also a member of CCS (I've seen her singing before).  I couldn't hear Laura from my location, but the proxy was well received and a very clever local innovation talking of magpies and trips to the coast and possums the like.  As for the performance, I'm not the only believer in the "she'll be right on the night" line, and the performance just proved the proposition.  It was a blast.  The were some moments of indecision or missed lines (Haydn is full of explosive and hugely challenging phrases, not just for the winds and others, but even for the basses) but the performance was thrilling and the exhilaration from choir and orchestra and singers on song was ever present.  And there were several fugues (3?), one at truly breakneck speed, all thrilling and structurally complex.  I love these things. And the gloriously delicate start to, what, winter?  And plenty more of interest.  Talk of massive, it was 2 hours playing with the repetitives removed!  Massive indeed.  But we did it and, as is the way, we partied and chuckled about it all after.  Just a blast, again, from our NCO/CCS collaboration.

National Capital Orchestra and Canberra Choral Society gather for their annual performance at Llewellyn Hall to play Haydn The Seasons.  Sarahlouise Owens (soprano), Ryan O'Donnell (tenor) and Sitiveni Talei (bass) sang.   Laura Tingle (narrator) replaced the repetitives with a Canberra Seasons theme.  Louis Sharpe (conductor) conducted and Dan Walker (chorus master) prepared the choir.  Our bottom end comprised Juliet Flook, Jennifer Groom and Eric Pozza (basses).

This is CJBlog post no. 2,600

Big day out

This was a big day, the annual concert by National Capital Orchestra with Canberra Choral Society in Llewellyn.  I dream of this day.  I get this massive grin as the voices ring out, the solo vocalists solo up front, the sound of the orchestra rings in this classy acoustic.  The audience may not quite look it, but you feel professional here.  Great lighting, this time the big e-organ, the stage managing and risers and the rest, always those voices.  This year was Rossini Petite messe solonnelle.  He'd become famous and rich and mostly retired from music, but later he wrote this work.  It's not Brahms or Mozart and it has some lightheartedness and melodrama from the Italian operatic scene, but it's also got some nice lines, a few involving fugues, a few but not too many challenges. At least for the bass, which is how I measure it.  Some players were a bit unflattering but I liked a few parts a lot and those voices were right behind me.  The basses were a line of five behind woodwinds and in front of 3 rows of choir.  We liked this.  We could see well, be part of the sound and project well into both the orchestra and the audience.  We got several supportive comments on our location, especially from violins, usually across stage from us, and given the foundational role of the bass, I reckon this could only be for the better.  From my part, I hugely enjoyed the performance, satisfied that my mistakes were mostly in rehearsal, as it usually is and as it should be.  Conductor Louis was a great pleasure in rehearsal and in performance.  We even got a mention on ABC Classic FM in the morning.  What more could you ask?  A fabulous outing and I judge a very worthy one.  But this was a big day and more to come...

National Capital Orchestra teamed with Canberra Choral Society to perform Rossini Petite messes solonnelle in Llewellyn Hall.  Louis Sharpe (conductor) led with Dan Walker (chorus master, tenor) and soloists Sarahlouise Owens (soprano), Sonia Anfiloff (alto), Ryan O'Donnell (tenor) and Hayden Barrington (baritone).   And five double basses.  

• Thanks to the indefatigable Peter Hislop for this and all the rest of his pics.