The Life and Times of Me

Review of concert by Dundee University Choirs and Orchestra, St Paul's Cathedral, Dundee, Sunday March 28.
by Russell Reid

THE audience at the spring concert by Dundee University Choirs and Orchestra directed by Graeme Stevenson in St Paul's Cathedral, Dundee, last night were welcomed by the University Brass Ensemble playing splendid music on the cathedral steps by Charpentier, Purcell, Stanley and Jeremiah Clarke.

It made a fine prelude to an excellent concert, which began with the University Orchestra in Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony. It is a sunny and sparkling work, eminently suited to the young players.

If it is to make its proper impact, it must open with a ping like stretched elastic, and this it certainly did. Although it would have sounded crisper in a less blurry acoustic than the cathedral's, there were some exciting crescendos, and a fine momentum maintained in the second movement.

Although one or two moments of uncertainty from the horns in the third movement led to some anxiety, the final presto was vividly done, and showed how far this young orchestra have come on recently.

While the resonance of the cathedral did not help the orchestra, it enhanced a particularly fine contribution from the Chamber Choir in a selection of madrigals from the 16th and 17th centuries.

This group is singing better now than for years - popular numbers such as Morley's Now Is The Month of Maying and The Silver Swan, by Orlando Gibbons, were beautifully shaped and phrased, and the blend and balance of voices was well night perfect.

Only in the last item, Since First I Saw Your Face by Thomas Ford, did the basses seem rather too forward.

The University Choir gave us a rarity - Brahms's Liebeslieder, or Love Songs - his setting, in waltz rhythm and accompanied by piano duet, of 18 short texts by the minor poet and homeopathic doctor George Daumer.

Brahms may have been inspired to set them to music by his secret romantic dreams about Julie, the beautiful daughter of the composers Robert and Clara Schumann, who at 24 was 12 years his junior. To his anguish, shortly after he completed the piece she became engaged to a young Italian nobleman whom she went on to marry a few weeks later, only to
die within three years.

The contrasting moods of words and music -tenderness, anxiety, frustration, longing and joy -were all nicely caught and projected by the chorus, and although the four soloists sang beautifully, it might have been better if they had come forward and done so from right at the front rather than from their places by the chorus.

Danielle Murray's soprano is light and slender but ideal for these songs, alto Fiona Harley sang naturally and enjoyably, Alex Keith (tenor) in both solo and duets was his usual confident and accomplished self, showing much evidence of thorough preparation, and the clear, incisive bass of Robert Phillips carried the music well.

Barbara Flower and Margaret Mitchell played the often tricky piano accompaniments flawlessly in what was, ultimately, a rewarding account.

posted by Amy @ 09:26