Berberis' World

Saturday, 19 March 2016, Fairfield Halls, Croydon.

The last time I sung Elijah was in 2009, under the barely-moving baton of the formidable – but sadly now the late – Kurt Masur.

This time, it was under the animated baton of the equally formidable – and happily still with us – Dan Ludford-Thomas, and it was just as enjoyable to sing second time round.

The only niggle was… well, there were two niggles. Niggle one was that Dan decided we would sing it in English, not German. From the opening aliterative “Hilf, Herr!”, which can have you hyperventilating if you’re not careful, through the glorious “Aber der Herr sieht es nicht”, with its beautiful descending strings as the sopranos sing “…an vielen, vielen Tausenden…”, and the glorious, if spittle-fuelled, “Da kam ein feuriger Wagen, mit feurigen, feurigen Rosen” the English text doesn’t quite have the gutteral quality necessary for such a completely bonkers piece. That said, the descending strings are still beautiful, and you can have just as much fun with fiery, fiery horses. And I could find nothing in the preface of my Novello score that says you have to drench the front three rows with spittle.

Niggle two was the omission of No. 40. Well, 40 and 41, but 41 is a quartet so leaving it out made no difference to the choir. But No. 40 has some more gorgeous strings: have a look at the middle system on page 192 of the Novello edition – the cellos and double basses get that dotted rhythm for just three bars, but what a glorious three bars they are! Overall, it’s an uplifting sing and I didn’t understand why it was left out.

I could add a third niggle – Croydon – but I was able to drive there and, as you can park more or less underneath Fairfield Halls, it’s a very small one. The venue is actually very nice – big dressing room, a café for coffee, eateries a short walk away – with good staging and excellent sightlines. LCS numbers were bolstered by the Derbyshire Singers, and a good sound was made by all.