Berberis' World

Saturday, 8th July 2017, Holy Trinity Church, Sloane Street, London.

Zoltán Kodály: Pange Lingua/Evening Song
Johannes Brahms: Rhapsody in G minor, Op. 79 No. 2
Ernö Dohnányi: Rhapsody in C major, Op. 11 No. 3
Arvo Pärt: Alleluia-Tropus/Which Was the Son of…
Henryk Górecki: Totus Tuus, Op. 60
Zoltán Kodály: Missa Brevis

Piano: Nico de Villiers
Organ: James Orford
Conductor: Dan Ludford-Thomas

Otherwise known as The Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity with Saint Jude, Upper Chelsea. I’d loved to have seen the Gothic original but this was demolished when it was only a few years older than I am now. Its designer, James Savage, had roughly a third of his buildings demolished which seems like quite a high ratio. Whether this was normal for the type of constructon at that time is probably on the internet somehwere. Whether the demolition of so many of his buildings was the cause, or the result, of his being a disagreeable fellow is probably also on the internet.

The replacement church has survived demolition, both proposed and actual. The former was prevented due to the efforts of John Betjamen, but even he couldn’t prevent the latter, perpetrated by the Luftwaffe during WW2.

Holy Trinity has two drawbacks: the changing room are the kindergarten, and there’s not enough seating room for the choir which means some of the tenors and basses have to stand in the trancept. However, it has splendid two features that more than make up for this: a huge east window, which we can gaze out of when not singing, and an organ that, on full throttle, makes the building tremble.

(I was unaware of Zoltán Kodály, which is to my shame as he is responsible for this, which has been beyond the wit of every education secretary in my lifetime.)

The text for Kodály’s Pange Lingua is a poem by Thomas Aquinas. I preferred Evening Song. We sang this in English instead of the original Hungarian, which would have been a challenge, but not impossible.

I’d not heard the Missa Brevis before. However, the sopranos have to hit the C two octaves above middle. That isn’t something you forget in a hurry.

Arvo Pärt’s Nunc Dimittis is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I’ve ever heard, certainly one of the most beautiful I’ve sung. Which Was the Son of… is almost comical. It’s based on Luke, Chapter 3, verses 23-38, which begins, ‘And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph,[…]’

Um…. ‘as was supposed’?

There then follows a list of 75 men – of whom any or some or all or none might have actually lived – ending in god. It’s been described as a ‘ridiculously banal text’, a comment which incurred the wrath of some botherers, one of whom asked what exactly was ‘a ridiculous text from the bible’? Apart from ‘love thy neighbour as thyself’, pretty much everything. I really do think that if we all lived by the maxim “do as you would be done by” there’d be far less aggro in the world. And, let’s be honest, most of the aggro in the world is caused – either entirely or in part – by how certain individuals/groups interpret their chosen ‘gospel’. To wit, your god imaginary friend is not as good as my god imaginary friend , therefore you – and as many future generations of your family as we think fit – must die.

Someone also wondered if Pärt had set the text to music as a bet.

We’ve performed Górecki’s Totus Tuus before. As an a cappella piece, it’s challenging because, unless you’re paying very close attention, the pitch can start to drop half through the first bar.

Holy Trinity was the perfect venue for this programme, which contained a lot of high notes which echoed around the rafters very nicely.