CHRISTMAS AT BLACKMORE

CHRISTMAS AT BLACKMORE

Stondon Singers at the Priory Church of St Laurence

19.12.17

This year’s concert of carols – a cherished advent tradition for many – was a fine blend of familiar favourites and fresh discoveries.

A score of offerings, including four congregational carols. Beginning with the much-loved We Will Rock You, and ending with a setting of Tennyson by the Finnish composer Jussi Chydenius.

The central work was Cecilia McDowall’s Christmas Cantata, A Winter’s Night, a sequence of five contrasting seasonal pieces, with plenty of work for the organ, played by Michael Frith. The instrument also featured in an assertive modern arrangement of We Three Kings.

The choir produced a precise, balanced sound, with good support from the lower voices. Amongst many other festive pleasures, we enjoyed the Song of the Nuns of Chester, of which the manuscript survives from the fifteenth century – an excellent choice for this medieval church. A rare performance of Imogen Holst’s Out of Your Sleep, two charming, melodic pieces by Alan Bullard and Pierre Villette [an excellent performance of his Hymne a la Vierge] and The Truth Sent from Above for divided choir by the Singers’ conductor, Christopher Tinker. A setting moving in its simplicity, redolent of the ancient world of plainchant and the folk tradition from which the words spring.

Voices In The Mist

by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

The time draws near the birth of Christ:

The moon is hid; the night is still;

The Christmas bells from hill to hill

Answer each other in the mist.

Four voices of four hamlets round,

From far and near, on mead and moor,

Swell out and fail, as if a door

Were shut between me and the sound:

Each voice four changes on the wind,

That now dilate, and now decrease,

Peace and goodwill, goodwill and peace,

Peace and goodwill, to all mankind.

GLORIA!

GLORIA!

A celebration of 20^th century French Music

The Stondon Singers at St Michael and All Angels, Galleywood

07.11.2017

St Michael and All Angels proved a good space for this collection of French 20^th century choral music.

Not least for the Conacher & Co organ, re-sited in the recent restoration to the west end, with the console now in the south aisle. Seated at it, Laurence Lyndon-Jones, whose contribution was invaluable, especially in the Langlais Messe Solenelle, where the dramatic interventions from the organ were thrillingly effective, particularly in the Gloria. The choir, directed with scrupulous precision and attention to detail by Christopher Tinker, coped well with contrapuntal writing here, and with the more contemplative Benedictus which precedes the assertive Agnus Dei.

Duruflé was represented by his Four Motets, which, like the Requiem heard last week in Chelmsford Cathedral, are based on Gregorian chant; indeed, each is prefaced by a brief solo chant.

Messiaen’s O Sacrum Convivium, an unaccompanied communion motet, was performed with exemplary control, bringing out its ethereal textures and harmonic richness.

The programme was book-ended by two popular works: Fauré’s Cantique de Jean Racine, taken at a reverent tempo, with well-shaped choral dynamics.

And Poulenc’s lively Gloria, with two choir members sharing the soprano solos, and the organ tackling the fanfares, the strings and the clarinet of the more usual orchestral accompaniment. A triumphant end to an impressive sampler of very different styles, with the Singers relishing the expansively lyrical Rex Caelestis and the lush harmonies of the final Qui Sedes with its mystical, uplifting Amen.

WILLIAM BYRD ANNIVERSARY CONCERT

WILLIAM BYRD ANNIVERSARY CONCERT

The Stondon Singers

at Stondon Parish Church

04.07.17

The Stondon Singers were formed back in the 60s, initially to bring the choral works of William Byrd home to Stondon Massey.

This was their 50^th Anniversary Concert – Byrd died on July 4 1623 – and it took as its theme the influence of Italy, specifically Venice, on music in Tudor England.

So, in his 450^th anniversary year, we had a four-part Mass by Monteverdi, meticulously phrased, especially in the Gloria, with a sublimely subtle ending in Dona Nobis Pacem.

A couple of his small-scale Madrigals, too, and, more obvious imports, some spirited Ferrabosco from Musica Transalpina, a collection of Italian works translated for the English market. And, as David Schacht's informative introduction reminded us, there were more tangible imports, too: flat-packed instruments for London luthiers to assemble.

A lively Gabrieli motet for eight voices, the text tossed around from part to part, and beautifully sung Willaert – a Flemish import to San Marco.

Byrd himself was represented by Tribue Domine, from Cantiones Sacrae – showcasing English music for the European market – and after Gibbons' exquisite Silver Swan, Although the Heathen, Byrd's short but showy part-song from a collection published in 1588.

The Stondon Singers were directed, with exemplary attention to detail, by Christopher Tinker.

CHRISTMAS AT BLACKMORE

The Stondon Singers at the Priory Church, Blackmore

20.12.16

The passing of another year is marked by this annual Christmas treat; as so often, the last of the carol concerts in the calendar.

The Singers, conducted by Christopher Tinker, began with the fifteenth century simplicity of Busnois' Noel, Noel, Noel, written when the Augustinian priory here was at its most prosperous, and ended with an equally simple, equally moving My Lord Has Come, written in 2010 by Durham composer Will Todd.

Loyset Pieton, of whom little is known, worked in Dijon at the start of his sixteenth century career; his O Beata Infantia was a wonderful discovery. Other highlights of a varied programme were Alan Bullard's Shepherds, Guarding Your Flocks, premièred here a year ago, Malcolm Archer's A Little Child There Is Yborn, with its haunting Alleluias, a nimble arrangement by Mark Wilberg of Ding Dong Merrily, and the sweet harmonies of Gabriel Jackson's lilting Christ-child. Michael Frith was the accompanist at the organ.

The capacity crowd got a chance to sing, too, and after a rousing O Come All Ye Faithful, the Stondon's traditional Christmas encore, an a cappella Silent Night from the west end of the nave.

As Nick Alston pointed out in his introduction, a choir is not just for Christmas, and the Stondon Singers' busy diary for 2017 includes a Marian anthology in Queen of Heaven, Evensong in St Paul's Cathedral, and the eagerly awaited William Byrd Anniversary in Stondon Massey.

William Todd - My Lord has come  from , A Christmas Eucharist from Bath Abbey, 25th December 2015. directed by Peter King

BYRD AND THE EUROPEAN FRINGE

BYRD AND THE EUROPEAN FRINGE

The Stondon Singers at Stondon Massey

05.07.16


William Byrd's celebratory Haec Dies was the curtain raiser to this anniversary concert, a fascinating collection of works, sacred and profane, by his contemporaries in Renaissance Europe.
Freedom of movement seems to have been no problem – Franco-Flemish or Scandinavian musicians migrating to find work in Italy or Spain, for instance. Such as Mogens Pederson, a Dane who met Gabrieli in Venice; we heard three of his delightful Italian madrigals.
Two settings of Vox in Rama: chromatic from Giaches de Wert, working in Spain, and exquisitely expressive from Polish composer Mikolaj Zielinski – fine singing from the Stondons under Christopher Tinker's direction. They also excelled in Byrd's Ave Verum of 1605, and in the nicely rounded sound of O Vos Omnes by one Robert Ramsey, who may have moved south from his native, independent Scotland in the retinue of his monarch in 1603.

A bonus on this glorious evening in Byrd's local church – lute music from Mike Ashley, with Annabel Malton soprano, including two contrasting pieces from another persistent Papist, master of melancholia John Dowland.

CHRISTMAS AT BLACKMORE

CHRISTMAS AT BLACKMORE

Stondon Singers 

at the Priory Church of 

St Laurence

22.12.15

Full house this year for the Stondon Singers' traditional concert of carols and Christmas music. As usual, a bracing mix of old and new, the familiar and the discoveries, conducted and introduced by Christopher Tinker.

New to me was Jacob Handl, 16^th century Slovene, whose Mirabile Mysterium was a challenging combination of the archaic and the modern. The evening ended with a favourite of mine since school days, Peter Cornelius's The Three Kings, sung from the west end of this ancient church.

A première: Alan Bullard's attractive setting of Shepherds Guarding Your Flocks, followed by Berlioz' Shepherds' Farewell. Two twentieth century pieces, beautiful in their simplicity, Rutter's Candlelit Carol and Britten's Hymn To The Virgin, with English and Latin alternating antiphonally.

Mark Ellis was the soloist in Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on Christmas Carols, splendidly performed, with Michael Frith at the organ. It concludes with an old version of a well-known carol from Somerset – let the last verse stand as season's greetings to you all:

God bless the ruler of this house,
And long on may he reign,
Many happy Christmases
He live to see again!
God bless our generation,
Who live both far and near,
And we wish them a happy, a happy New Year.

FAURÉ REQUIEM & CHICHESTER PSALMS

FAURÉ REQUIEM & CHICHESTER PSALMS

The Stondon Singers at Blackmore

14.11.15

Two great works from the choral repertoire, poles apart in many ways, but sharing a romantic solo at their heart.

First, Bernstein's Chichester Psalms. The accompaniment, from the organ of Michael Frith and the harp of Gwenllian Llyr, was vibrant and muscular, and seemed to inspire the choir to up their game, too, producing a refreshingly assertive, open sound. Alto soloist Oliver El-Holiby, singing without a score, gave a wonderful account of the psalm, powerful but tender, with subtle dynamics, the choir softly shading in behind.

Oliver also gave us an aria from Gluck's Orfeo, and Hurford's beautiful setting of Herrick's Litany.

The Singers, directed by Christopher Tinker, ended the first half with early Whitacre: Waternight, an uplifting, intricately woven sequence of dissonances and tone clusters, well sustained by the choir.

The final work, Fauré's movingly simple Requiem, first given in the Madeleine in Paris with rather larger, and all-male, forces, was here underpinned by organ, with the harp for the Sanctus and the choir of angels. Hosannas, and Dies Irae, made a particular impact. Mark Ellis sang the baritone part from the ranks; the treble for the Pie Jesu was a confident and pure-toned Elliott Harding-Smith.

WILLIAM BYRD ANNIVERSARY CONCERT

WILLIAM BYRD ANNIVERSARY CONCERT

Stondon Singers at Stondon Massey

07.07.15

Imogen Holst's lovely Mass setting of 1927, rarely heard since she composed it while still a student, was the centrepiece of this year's Byrd concert.

Performed with immaculate styling by the Stondons under Christopher Tinker – the graphic setting of “Jesu Christe” in the Gloria and the final “pacem” of the Agnus Dei were beautifully realised – it betrays the influence of her teachers Howells, Dyson and especially Vaughan Williams, as well as the Renaissance masters whose work made up the programme.

Tallis – an assured O Sacrum Convivium – and of course William Byrd, his heartfelt setting of Savonarola's Infelix Ego, dramatically progressing from a tentative “non audeo” to the climactic redemptive “misericordiam”. Plus four motets from the second book of Gradualia, dedicated to his fellow Catholic the First Baron Petre and described in the dedication as “blooms collected in your own garden”. And to end, a light-footed Madrigal, Though Amaryllis Dance in Green.

Always a pleasure to celebrate Byrd in the church by his Stondon Massey house; to sit in the nave he seldom frequented, to listen to a selection of his life's work, and to drink wine in the churchyard where he was “grudgingly” interred in 1623 and still lies in the tranquillity of an unmarked grave.

CHRISTMAS AT BLACKMORE

CHRISTMAS AT BLACKMORE

The Stondon Singers at the Priory Church

16.12.2014

A delicate Christmas pot-pourri from this exceptional chamber choir, directed by Christopher Tinker.

The centrepiece was In Terra Pax, in which Gerald Finzi encases words from Matthew's Gospel in a poem by Robert Bridges, placing the Bible story in an English countryside setting. Beautifully sung here, with the significant solos – the Poet and the Angel - impressively handled by Mark Ellis and Michelle Arthur. And Michael Frith at the organ valiantly deputizing for the orchestra.

A similar theme in Peter Warlock's Bethlehem Down, which, like Jesus Christ The Apple Tree, featured exquisitely modulated pianissimo passages.

Tinker's own setting of I Saw A Maiden was tenderly phrased, and the folk-inspired Scots Nativity by Colchester composer Alan Bullard had a movingly eloquent simplicity.

There was a new Holly and the Ivy from Matthew Owens, and a different In Dulci Jubilo, “a multi-layered cake”, with a high soprano line the frosting on top.

We had several chances to raise our voices, from Advent hymn to Adeste Fideles, and the evening was bookended by Es Ist Ein Ros' – first in the Praetorius original, then in a magical, mystical arrangement by Jan Sandstrom, its beautifully sustained notes floating up to the ancient rafters.

FOR THE FALLEN

FOR THE FALLEN

Stondon Singers at St Lawrence, Blackmore

11.11.2014

Armistice Day was marked in Blackmore with this timely concert, including works from some of the best-loved choral composers now writing.

But the evening began, and ended, with Douglas Guest's In Memoriam, a short, simple setting of Binyon's familiar words of remembrance; a reading too of a poem by Julian Grenfell, who lost his life in France in 1915.

Morten Lauridsen, master of American mysticism, wrote his Lux Aeterna after the death of his mother. It is a simple, heartfelt continuum of sacred texts on the theme of light, sung with sustained emotional momentum by the Singers under Christopher Tinker, with Michael Frith at the organ.

Even better suited to their forces was Rutter's Requiem, which was accompanied by members of the Meridian Sinfonia: the oboe for The Lord's My Shepherd, with its exquisite soprano solo, and the mournful cello for Out of the Deep, which seemed somehow to resonate with the ancient stones of this historic Priory church.

A memorable, moving musical commemoration of those lost in war, and proof that the Stondon Singers' expertise extends far beyond the Renaissance polyphony for which they are best known.

The fighting man shall from the sun
Take warmth, and life from the glowing earth;
Speed with the light-foot winds to run,
And with the trees a newer birth;
And find, when fighting shall be done,
Great rest, and fullness after dearth.

WAR AND PEACE

WAR AND PEACE

The Stondon Singers at Ingatestone Hall

08.07.14

William Byrd was a frequent visitor to Ingatestone Hall, and to his patron the first Baron Petre. More than four hundred years on, he'd be slightly surprised, perhaps, to find the Hall still here, and lived in, and the eighteenth Baron in the audience for this concert.

War, the theme of Brentwood Arts Festival, is also still with us, of course, and Byrd's Civitas Sancti Tui, graphically depicting the desolation of Jerusalem, reminds us that nothing much has changed since the time of Isaiah.

A very different take on the battlefield in La Guerre, a highly coloured description of a French victory [in Italy, in 1515] by Jannequin, jingoistic avant la lettre, performed with relish by the Stondon Singers under Christopher Tinker.

Their a cappella polyphony sounded especially delightful in the panelled hall. Their themed programme, which also included Tallis, Victoria and two guys named Lobo, ended with an optimistic lollipop, one of Byrd's few secular works, the madrigal This Sweet Merry Month of May. 

for those not fortunate enough to be at Ingatestone Hall, or Stondon Church the previous week, here are The Kings Singers with two of the key works ...

FAIRE IS THE HEAVEN

FAIRE IS THE HEAVEN

The Stondon Singers at Brentwood Cathedral

22.03.2014

Forsaking the familiar Blackmore Priory for the resonant box of Brentwood Cathedral, the Stondon Singers, directed by Christopher Tinker, presented an impressive programme of English Church music.

Beginning and ending with two majestic Handel coronation anthems – the substantial The King Shall Rejoice, and to start proceedings the ever-popular Zadok The Priest.

There was much intriguing cross-referencing: Parry's equally popular I Was Glad [glorious organ accompaniment from Stephen King] was contrasted with Purcell's more poignant setting, with the vocal parts blending beautifully in this acoustic. “Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem” was also heard in Herbert Howells' wartime setting. And Purcell's contemplative Hear My Prayer was set against Mendelssohn's Victorian version of the supplication, with Annabel Malton's pure soprano ringing thrillingly around the architecture.

E W Naylor's dramatic motet Vox Dicentis Clama, from 1911, was sung with admirable precision, the various voices clear and distinct.

The concert took its title from W H Harris's Spenser setting, written in 1925. It was good to hear the works presented uninterrupted, though we did miss the scholarly introductions, especially as there was little help in the programme.

The Stondon Singers are back on their home ground [St Peter and St Paul Stondon Massey] on July 1, for the annual William Byrd anniversary concert.

WATERCOLOURS

WATERCOLOURS

Stondon Singers at Blackmore Priory Church

12.11.13

Music inspired by the natural world made for a pleasing programme from the Stondon Singers, conducted by Christopher Tinker.

Lively choruses from Haydn's Creation, linked by readings and including a robust Heavens Are Telling and a precisely delivered Achieved is the Glorious Work, provided a contrast with the pastel, pastoral tone of many of these settings. As did the playful Ballad of Green Broom, the last of Britten's Five Flower Songs.

Among the most enjoyable offerings were Elgar's gentle Torrents in Summer, William Hawley's evocative setting of Emily Dickinson's My River Runs to Thee, and the closing number, Stanford's much-loved Blue Bird, with Annabel Malton's pure soprano soaring above the nave.

This is a chamber choir, and they excel in the delicate madrigals, like Wilbye's miniature Flora Gave Me Fairest Flowers. But they also rose to the challenge of the Haydn, Tinker's own Memento Mori, and Eric Whitacre's unaccompanied Water Night, with its intense, richly textured harmonies.

Michael Frith, the Singers' accompanist, contributed a fine Bach Prelude and Fugue on the venerable St Laurence organ.

BYRD ANNIVERSARY CONCERT

BYRD ANNIVERSARY CONCERT

The Stondon Singers in Stondon Massey Church

02.07.13

This year's concert featured an early Tudor mass setting by Byrd's teacher John Sheppard – the Western Wind, based on a popular song, whose choral textures are often distilled to solo voices, for example in the Crucifixus and the Benedictus. Sung with lucidity and precision by the Stondons, conducted by Christopher Tinker. Just as enjoyable was the lollipop which closed the evening: Richard Genée's Insalata Italiana, an amusing parody of opera, using the gamut of Italian score markings, from piano to piu mosso, fronted by the impressive bass of Mark Ellis.

But the main theme of the programme was the influence on Byrd of another foreigner, the madrigalist and secret agent Alfonso Ferrabosco. So, helped by a brief talk by Richard Turbet, we could play compare and contrast, and spot the difference, for example with two very different settings of Susanna Fair, and two strikingly similar songs called The Nightingale.

And to end the first half, a collector's item, long misattributed, O Praise Our Lord. A lively piece, which, like the opening Laudibus in Sanctis, enumerates the instruments of praise, like "the gladsome sound of silver bells", before sinking back into a restful Amen.

As is traditional, we take refreshment amongst the gravestones. Somewhere in this remote churchyard William Byrd is buried, and may feel the footfall of those faithful few who still value his music and his witness.