Singers’ worthy tribute to brilliant and inventive Victorian composer

PANGBOURNE College’s magnificent Falklands Islands Memorial Chapel, with its excellent acoustics, was a fitting scene for this concert performed by Pangbourne Choral Society.

The 90-strong choir were joined by the distinguished Southern Sinfonia Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Sara Benbow, new musical director of the society.

Sara explained that the programme celebrated the achievements of Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, who died on March 29, 1924.

In his youth Stanford had been strongly influenced by Sir Arthur Sullivan and Johannes Brahms to become a brilliant and inventive composer.

In turn, he went on to teach and influence several generations of celebrated British composers while at the Royal College of Music, including Herbert Howells, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Charles Wood.

Sara’s careful selection of 11 performance pieces reflected this wide range of famous composers, commencing with Brahms’s magnificent Ein Deutsches Requiem, premiered in Vienna in 1867.

This large-scale choral orchestral piece, led by Sara’s energetic and flamboyant conducting, set the scene for the evening with its dramatic and stirring emotional tones, expressing hope in resurrection. Sir Arthur Sullivan’s All This Night Bright Angels Sing (Carol for Christmas Day) provided the choir with the opportunity to sing unaccompanied, showing their rich and harmonious sounds.

Stanford’s Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in C major was a magnificent rendition with organ and orchestral accompaniment filling the chapel with its deep wall of sound.

The Gloria was noteworthy for the interplay between the brass and organ, supported by the choir.

Tenor James Gilchrist, accompanied by virtuoso Anna Tilbrook on piano, provided a contrast with a selection of three songs composed by Muriel Herbert, each with a dramatic melodic style with subtle chromatic harmonisations, including The Loveliest of Trees, with words by AE Housman, and Tewkesbury Road, with words by John Masefield

Next we heard Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast, which was composed in 1898 and premiered by Stanford, who achieved success worldwide.

The Pangbourne choir was later joined by James Gilchrist in singing the verses inspired by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s famous poem.

Contemporary composer James MacMillan’s O Radiant Dawn was an a cappella piece beautifully executed.

Gerald Finzi’s God is Gone Up was a fitting finale with its uplifting and joyful tones enhanced by the brass section of the orchestra.

At nearly three hours in duration, this concert was indeed a rich tribute to Stanford.

Terry Grourk