CANTORES Olicanae gave themselves a real hill to climb in performing one of Arvo Pärt’s major works in the ‘tintinabuli’ style – the Berliner Messe of 1990 – at their concert on Saturday. That they struggled is not surprising – Pärt’s weirdly angular phrases are a nightmare to pitch and uncertainty here made successful ensemble singing difficult. Nevertheless the choir and their conductor, Rory Wainwright Johnston, should be congratulated on making a valiant attempt at a complex piece. Particularly satisfying were the Veni creator spiritus, where the chant-like lines are more approachable and the pedal bass provides security of pitch, and the Sanctus, where the lower parts produced a pleasingly sombre ensemble.
The sections of the mass were separated by short choral pieces and contributions from the skilled young players of the small string orchestra. The real success here was a luminous performance of Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel by violist Toby Holden with Rory Wainwright Johnson on piano. There were also three fascinating and well performed exercises in sacred minimalism by Wainwright Johnson himself – Three Meditations on Circles – which utilized a number of simple sustained and repetitive figures in order to evoke a truly meditative atmosphere.
The choir were more convincing in some of the other works. They gave a moving performance of Brahms’ Geistliches Lied with its wonderfully romantic ‘Amen’ and a confident rendition of the Norwegian Ola Gjeilo’s Ubi caritas – inspired by Gregorian chant. The choral highlight, however, was James Macmillan’s O Radiant Dawn, which opened the concert and was sung from memory and with assurance.
Cantores Olicanae have the potential to be a really good choir. There is generally a good balance between the parts and also clear enunciation of words, whether in Latin or English. It is always praiseworthy to be ambitious in choosing repertoire but good choral performances require that everyone is secure in their parts, and, as the Macmillan showed, this is something that this choir is clearly capable of.
Chris Skidmore
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