Reviews

ABERDEEN ORPHEUS CHOIR

SUMMER CONCERT

Conductor JANE MURRAY

MANNOFIELD PARISH CHURCH

Saturday 25th May 2024

JACK MACDONALD Special Star Guest Pianist

Graham Macdonald Piano duettist with Jack in Libertango

Erika Fairhead Piano accompanist

Andrew Fairhead Piano duettist with Erika in Saint-Saëns The Aquarium

Janice Montgomery & Graeme Morrice Guitarists

Pam Auckland & Anne Darling Trumpets

PROGRAMME:

Rolf Løvland & Brendan Graham

You Raise Me Up

George Gershwin & DuBose Heyward

Summertime

George & Ira Gershwin

Love Walked In

Claude Debussy

Prelude from Suite Bergamasque (Piano solo)

Bob Chilcott

Remember Me

Mozart

Lacrimosa from the Requiem K626

Kristen Anderson-Lopez

Remember Me from Coco

Javier Busto

Ave Maria

Gabriel Fauré

Agnus Dei from Requiem Op. 48

Samuel Coleridge Taylor

Impromptu in b minor (Piano solo)

George Harrison

Here Comes the Sun

Alan Menken

Go the Distance from the Disney Film Hercules

John Denver

Annie’s Song

INTERVAL

John Leavitt

Festival Sanctus

Eric Whitacre

Sing Gently

Andrew & Erika Fairhead

All Aboard for Bon Accord An affectionate and amusing tribute to the bus drivers of Aberdeen

Astor Piazzolla

Libertango (Piano duet)

Stephen Paulus

The Road Home

Ennio Morricone

Nella Fantasia

Aram Khachaturian

Toccata (Piano solo)

Furrokh Bulsara (Freddy Mercury)

Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Camille Saint-Saëns

The Aquarium from The Carnival of the Animals (Piano duet)

Harold Arlen & E. Y. Harburg

Over the Rainbow

REVIEW:

A near full house audience filled Mannofield Church for Aberdeen Orpheus Choir’s Summer Concert. Saturday’s performance was dedicated to the Choir’s accompanist Erika Fairhead who has decided to retire after 13 years of exemplary service to the Choir.

The programme, as you will have seen listed above, was firmly based on popular tuneful music. Even the more obviously classical pieces by Mozart and Fauré were well known excerpts from hugely popular works, the Requiems. Many of the popular pieces like You Raise Me Up or Summertime were delivered in arrangements by hugely successful American arrangers like Roger Emerson or Mac Huff. Jane Murray does also include works by less well known composers whose music she has discovered over the years, such as the Ave Maria by the Spanish composer Javier Busto (b. 1940). His piece had a fascinating use of female and male voices which although clearly and sometimes surprisingly separate were still cleverly woven together. The Orpheus Choir brought out the freshness and surprising power of this setting of a well known religious text.

The opening piece in the concert, You Raise Me Up had the male and female voices answering one another. The piano sections were particularly attractive, the choir’s rich harmonies seized the attention of the audience and the change of key was spectacular.

In Gershwin’s Summertime, the sopranos were backed by choral hums or rather oohs, and the tenors later took the melody. In Love Walked In, the basses in the choir took the tune splendidly.

Bob Chilcott once came up to Aberdeen to conduct some of his music with the Orpheus Choir. I first came across him on a record of the Fauré Requiem on which he was the treble soloist. I still have that record somewhere upstairs. On Saturday we heard his setting of words by Christina Rosetti, Remember Me. This was for the female voices of the choir only. An arpeggiated piano accompaniment supported unison singing set against particularly attractive harmonic writing. Jane Murray had cleverly set this piece alongside Mozart’s Lacrimosa from the celebrated Requiem surely one of the finest works ever composed. The idea was to match the emotional senses of the music. To complete this idea, we had another piece also entitled Remember Me. It was by Kristen Anderson-Lopez from the musical Coco which tells the story of Coco Chanel. Very much infused with the spirit of show music, this was another fine arrangement by Roger Emerson which the choir delivered splendidly well. The Ave Maria by Javier Busto was followed by the Agnus Dei from Fauré’s Requiem. The choir sang the Mozart Requiem well, but I thought the Fauré came across even better. The tenors sang beautifully. Contrasts in dynamics were particularly well handled and the piano accompaniment was beautifully done. George Harrison’s song Here Comes the Sun was delivered with real enthusiasm by the choir supported by the guitar playing of Janice Montgomery and Graeme Morrice over the speakers. That sound blend worked well. This was followed by Alan Menken’s Go the Distance from Hercules. The sopranos really sold the melody and the harmonies certainly had that Hollywood richness.

The first half of the concert was concluded with John Denver’s Annie’s Song with once again the backing of the two guitars.

The second half opened with John Leavitt’s Festival Sanctus. Lively rhythm and chiming sounds from both piano and choir made this a festive piece indeed. It was so full of joyful fully committed singing.

Eric Whitacre’s Sing Gently contrasted with warm loving harmonies.

The female voices had entertained us with Bob Chilcott’s Remember Me, now it was time for the 16 men of the choir to strut their stuff. Andrew and Erica Fairhead had composed a riotously humorous piece based on a work with words and music by Flanders and Swan. Little bits of melody echoed the words which were so full of fun:

Some talk of a Lagonda.

Some like a smart M. G.

Or for Bonnie Army Lorry,

they’d lay them doon and dee.

The riotous response of the audience proved how much they had enjoyed this work, so full of word and musical jokes. The men of the choir surely had enjoyed performing it too as they proved so splendidly.

Stephen Paulus The Road Home with words by Daniel Browne had attractive harmonies followed by Ennio Morricone’s Nella Fantasia with first the male then the female voices selling the attractive melody. When Jane Murray announced Freddy Mercury’s Crazy Little Thing Called Love the looks on the faces of the altos who were right in front of me lit up with delight. That came through in their performance when they were backed by Pam Auckland and Anne Darling on trumpets and Graeme Morrice on bass guitar.

Erika Fairhead was joined by husband Andrew as piano duettists in The Aquarium from The Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns. They very much portrayed that serene underwater world.

The concert ended with Harold Arlen’s Over the Rainbow including the opening verse which is not in the film. Apparently Sam Goldwyn wanted to cut the song from the film, he thought it was a miserable dirge. I’m glad he is not conducting the Aberdeen Orpheus Choir.

At every concert, Jane Murray always does something really special. She includes in her programme several pieces of music to be performed by an up and coming really talented young musician. In Saturday’s concert, that special young musician was a pianist who has just undertaken his Grade 8 ABRSM Piano Performance exam. Fifteen year old Jack Macdonald is currently in Secondary 4 at Cults Academy. He is also studying piano with Nigel Clayton at the North East of Scotland Music School. I have left his performances till last so that I can deal with them together.

His first piece was the Prelude from Suite Bergamasque by Debussy. This was a beautifully expressive performance with well thought out variety of tempo and dynamics. The lines of music were clearly brought out in Debussy’s various levels of piano sound.

Jack’s second piece was the Impromptu in B minor by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, a British mixed race composer who when he went to New York was called the African Mahler. Jack Macdonald’s performance contrasted lovely delicacy of touch with rich melodic playing.

For his next piece, Jack was joined at the piano by his father Graham Macdonald who is also studying piano at the North East of Scotland Music School. As duettists they played Astor Piazzolla’s Libertango. This was a crazily brilliant performance, rhythmically intoxicating and drawing forth a tsunami of applause from the audience and indeed the choir!

Jack’s final piece was the Toccata by Aram Khachaturian. A wildly exciting performance, full of fire and rhythmic inexorability. This is often the case with Khachaturian’s music. Think of his Sabre Dance possibly his best known piece. The Toccata is an ultimate showpiece for piano, full of cascading runs and crashing chords. How did Jack do? Well, I think the explosive audience applause said it all. Well done Jack, and well done Jane Murray for finding this young musician and bringing him to your concert!

ALAN COOPER