Second-year International Business student Matthew Bamford reviews last week’s Crypt Concert.
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The crypt of Canterbury Cathedral is an incredibly special and unique performance space. This intimate venue was host to the University of Kent Chamber Choir, conducted by Dan Harding and Steph Richardson.
The aim of the concert was to explore a whole day from the rise of the sun right the way through until midnight. Using a blend of sacred and secular pieces the programme consisted of madrigals, part-songs, motets and two pieces for solo piano.
From the first words of the plainsong Salve festa dies, I knew that I was in for a very enjoyable evening. This set the mood for the first section of the concert. Eric Barnum’s Dawn followed; the beginning of the piece using an incredibly simple harmonic structure. However at the end of the piece there was an interesting section where each of the sopranos sang an individual note of the scale. The composer’s idea here was to ‘create a golden light’. I think it is fair to say that this was most definitely captured.
My next highlight was the solo piano piece Un Sospiro. One of Liszt’z concert studies was expertly handled by second year music scholar Susan Li. The piece was received with rapturous applause after Li really brought out the richness of the piece.
As the day began to draw to a close, there was time for some playful madrigal singing before bed. Tutto lo di, a lively and fun piece written by Orlando di Lassus was intelligently sung by the choir. Despite the choir wanting to ‘play all day’, the long day did have to draw to a close with a beautiful rendition of this piece by Sullivan, conducted by Steph Richardson.
After twenty minutes in which to dwell on the first half, carrying a zebra print handbag (thanks Sophie!), the second half opened with the beautiful Sleep, Wayward Thoughts. The mood of the concert then headed to a more relaxed state as we heard In Stiller Nacht by Brahms. Sung in German, this piece focused on exploring the timelessness of night. This was captured well by the rhythmic sense of the choir and really was a very relaxing piece.
We were treated to another lovely piano solo, Chopin’s Nocturne in F Minor,’again received by the audience with excellent applause.
The concert ended with Eric Whitacre’s Sleep, which really is full of colour. This contemporary piece was delivered to an outstanding standard which left the audience wanted more (although I’m sure nobody was expecting the encore!).
We all thought it was over, until we had the pleasure of Harding’s arrangement of ‘Moondance’ by the legend that is Van Morrison. A completely contrasting piece to hear in the context of the rest of the programme, although everybody thoroughly enjoyed it and if like me, carried on singing it for the whole weekend.
Thank you to Dan Harding, Steph Richardson, Susan Li and The University Chamber Choir for a fantastic Friday evening; I’m looking forward to the next concert on March 30th.
As far as I know, he is the only composer to have been born on 29 February. Not counting all the ‘substitute’ birthdays on February 28, how many birthdays would he have celebrated – or, how old would he have been today ?
On Friday 24 February, the Chamber Choir will present From Morn to Midnight, an evocative programme exploring the differing colours in a single day. In a blend of sacred and secular pieces, and including works for solo piano by Chopin and Liszt, the programme moves from Eric Barnum’s Dawn to Eric Whitacre’s Sleep. There are also works by Vaughan Williams, Saint-Saëns and Brahms, Italian madrigals, Elizabethan part-songs and plainsong.
Reading Thomas Owens’ excellent Bebop: the music and its players, a survey of key figures in the bebop movement – Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie to name but two – recently, the writer makes the following observation:
Events kick off in a few week’s time with the award-winning St James Quintet opening the Lunchtime Concert series for the term with an eclectic programme for wind quintet. February begins with a bang as the Concert and Big Bands storm back to the Gulbenkian in ‘Nice ‘n’ Easy,’ with a selection including classic Duke Ellington and pieces fromWicked, to name but a few; the Chamber Choir will take you on an evocative journey ‘From Morn to Midnight‘ in the intimacy of Canterbury Cathedral Crypt towards the end of the month.
March promises to be an epic month; there’s the glory of the Colyer-Fergusson Cathedral Concert as the Chorus and Symphony Orchestra unite in Haydn’s Creation; student and staff musicians in Jazz @ 5; the exciting prospect of Korngold’s lyrical second string quartet with the Brodskys; exoticism from the Bamboo and Silk Ensemble; not one – not two – but three bands as the Concert and Big Bands team up with St. Edmund’s School for Big Bands3, before the term finishes with a valedictory lunchtime concert at St Peter’s Church in Canterbury from the newly-founded University Mistral Ensemble and the Chamber Choir.
Phew.