Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 19, 1990 TAG: 9003192514
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SETH WILLIAMSON SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In a high-quality program of mainly English composers, they demonstrated the peculiar virtues of a choral tradition that stretches back long before the Renaissance. Led by Timothy Brown and accompanied by two organ scholars, the 29 Cambridge University students earned a standing ovation with cheers and whistles of a sort not often heard within the precincts of a church.
The Choir of Clare College is exquisite. It sings with a pristine diction and an almost organic ensemble. On this second stop of a bi-coastal American tour, the choir demonstrated a flawless command of dynamics and a sumptuous tonal blend.
Purists may have been skeptical of a co-ed cathedral choir, given the English men-and-boys choral tradition, but skeptics were scarce after Sunday night's concert. The group sings in the cool, vibrato-less straight tone that has been popularized in America in the past decade by John Rutter, who himself is a former director of the ensemble.
As Jeffrey Sandborg of the Roanoke Valley Choral Society observed during intermission, people who dislike this style of choral singing find it monochromatic. But any such defects are more than compensated for by a purity and intensity and clarity that are ideally suited to the repertoire. The rather dry acoustics of St. John's were not perfect for the choir, but acoustical shortcomings don't faze an ensemble of this caliber.
The program began with four 16th-century masterpieces, the "Loquebantur" of Thomas Tallis, the "Ave Verum" and "Teach Me, O Lord" of William Byrd, and "Hosanna to the Son of David" by Thomas Weelkes. The choir began the Tallis in startling fashion, without a reference note from organ or pitchpipe, and their mastery was immediately evident. Their diction was pure without being forced, final consonants were sung as if by a single person, and phrases ended with razor-sharp clarity.
The rest of the program mostly stayed at the high level of the Tallis and the Byrd. It included Bach's "Lobet den Herr'n," a jazzy and unorthodox Magnificat by Giles Swayne, and Benjamin Britten's antiphonal "Hymn to the Virgin," which featured divided choirs.
The best moments came during William Harris's "Faire Is the Heaven." This was a sensitive and loving rendering of the 1925 classic, with dynamics that alternately surged and ebbed throughout the church as the musicians evoked poet Edmund Spencer's vision of Heaven.
The choir's encore was the setting of Psalm 23 from John Rutter's "Requiem," during which one of the group's sopranos played a lovely oboe obbligato part.
by CNB