An afternoon Prom, in which Messiaen's Messe de Pentecote was alternated with Manchicourt's Missa Veni Sancte Spiritus. James O'Donnell played the Messiaen, getting some amazing sounds out of the Albert Hall organ. I am not well up enough on organs to be able to begin to explain/describe how he did it. One of the movements ended on an amazing chord in which Messiaen combined what seemed to be the highest note on the organ with the lowest, the latter making itself more as a throbbing than anything else.
In complete contrast Manchicourt's mass, which was sung by the BBC Singers conducted by Andrew Carwood, was the epitome of fluent restraint. Not that Manchicourt eschewed richness, as he wrote the mass for a 6 part choir and gave us some lovely textures. He ended his life as the director of Philip II of Spain's Flemish chapel in Madrid, so Manchicourt had a body of extremely fine singers at his disposal. The BBC Singers did him justice and created a fluent performance which managed to fill the space of the Albert Hall.
Alternating the organ pieces with the mass was a superb idea. Neither the organ piece, nor the mass was designed to be heard in a single lump and this gave us the opportunity to hear both works in distributed format. More please!
Monday 11 August 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Popular Posts this month
-
Septura I first became aware of the brass septet, Septura , when noting their 2017/18 concert series Kleptomania at St John's Smith...
-
Handel: Acis and Galatea - chorus - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Ali Wright) Handel: Acis and Galatea ; Elizabeth Karani, Anthony Gregory, Ch...
-
2019 seemed a year for scholarship and rarity in recordings. Retrospect Opera gave us the first recording of Ethel Smyth's Fete Galan...
-
Wolf-Ferrari: Il segreto di Susanna - John Savournin - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Ali Wright) Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari: Il segreto di Susanna ;...
-
Donizetti: The Elixir of Love - James Atkinson - Wild Arts 2023 (Photo: Lucy J Toms) We humans, alone on earth, are powerful enough to crea...
-
Handel: Giulio Cesare - Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, Louise Alder - Glyndebourne, 2024 (Photo: © Richard Hubert Smith) Handel: Giulio Cesare in Eg...
-
Gimnazija Kranj Symphony Orchestra I get all sorts of mail, people sending my information on concerts and recordings. Everything gets gl...
-
Andrew Norman: A Trip to the Moon - Youth Company rehearsal, Garsington Opera 2024 (Photo: Julian Guidera) American composer Andrew Norman ...
-
Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro - David Ireland, Claire Lees - Garsington Opera, 2024 (Photo: Julian Guidera) Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro ; David...
-
Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin - James Baillieu, Julien Van Mellaerts, Christopher Purves - Opera in Song at Opera Holland Park, 2022 Opera ...
No comments:
Post a Comment