Royston Choral SocietyRoyston Choral SocietyThaxted Church
The Society performed Verdi's Requiem with the Bishops Stortford Choral Society and Hertford Symphony Orchestra in Thaxted parish church.
The feedback has included lots of superlatives from people who are not always easy to impress - here are just a few.
"...a truly wonderful performance ... very very special evening and we
shan’t forget it, nor will anyone who was part of it, either performing or
listening. I can’t list all the things that were so outstanding – it would
take too long ... Fantastic."
© Royston Choral Society 2010
"....It was very special to be involved in, and my family were really wowed
by it"
"...everyone I spoke to afterwards was full of praise, including my 24-year
old daughter who has never even listened to classical music!"
"... I thoroughly enjoyed myself ....I'm still a bit deaf in my right ear
from standing next to the drum and tuba..."
"..a magnificent concert ...so much delighted feedback from audience and
choirs – a tour de force."
"...my jet-lagged friend from Sydney couldn't nod off!"
Christopher Bayston, Musical Director of Bishop Stortford Choral Society, wrote of the performance,
Saturday 15th May saw a memorable gala concert performance of Verdi’s Requiem before a large and enthusiastic audience at the magnificent Parish Church at Thaxted. It involved Choral Societies of Bishops Stortford and Royston, the East Herts Youth Choir, the Hertford Symphony Orchestra and the East Herts Youth Orchestra, all separately trained by the conductor David Boarder – a defining moment in the career of a very busy man.
He moulded them into a seamless ensemble of over two hundred musicians and controlled them with effortless precision, shaping the nuances of tempo to achieve a compelling structure surmounted by great climaxes, whilst avoiding the pitfalls of self-indulgence which can so easily spoil this wonderfully colourful and Romantic score.
Verdi’s Requiem was written soon after his opera Aida and he gave both works a similarly melodramatic treatment: virtuoso singing for chorus and soloists alike requiring stamina that the choristers eagerly demonstrated; a huge range of dynamics; a rich pallet of orchestral sound in which the players revelled; the constant juxtaposition of major and minor describing the cataclysmic clash between good and evil; extremes of ferocity, tenderness and pathos.
This concourse of performers was fronted by a solo quartet; Claire Seaton (soprano)’ Janet Shell (mezzo soprano), Paul Badley (tenor) and Jamie Hall (bass). Verdi worked alongside Italian opera stars and his Requiem requires soloists as individually striking in range, timbre and personality as the beloved cartoon caricatures of Gerrard Hoffnung. Not only did these four singers live up to our wildest expectations in this respect. They had clearly been drilled musically as well as a first rate string quartet. No singing competition here! Throughout their extensive contribution each one of them reinforced the others’ performance in balance, blend and expression. I seriously doubt whether Verdi himself would have experienced from the soloists of his day such an impressive purity of intonation as that which we enjoyed on Saturday.
In the choral singing too, intonation was of an excellent standard and some of the softest moments breathtakingly dramatic. In the jollity of the final Libera me Domine de morte aeterna fugue, however, members of the chorus did not seem to be entirely clear about just what they were begging God to deliver them from. This slightly blunted the edge of intensity at the end of an otherwise riveting evening.
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