Image: The Astra Choir in practice; photograph courtesy of Astra.
The Astra Choir, giving the third in its 2016 series of six concerts with instrumental guests, presented a challenging program of diverse repertoire within the reverberant acoustic of Our Lady in Mount Carmel Church, Middle Park. With a long and distinguished heritage going back to 1951, the Astra Choir of around 35 members is now a committed body of enthusiasts who perform rare and newly written repertoire under the richly eclectic musical vision of its director, John McCaughey; several within the choir are themselves composers. The ensemble performs repertoire from ancient to modern as this program demonstrated.
91-year-old founder of Schola Cantorum Stuttgart, Clytus Gottwald, contributed highly competent arrangements of passages from Mahler Symphonies and a late piano work by Liszt for multiple choirs with freely added text (by Friedrich Hebbel, Richard von Volkmann and excerpts from Des Knaben Wunderhorn) that he argues matches the mood and intent of the original music. These were curious and highly indulgent works, though interesting to hear nonetheless. They are perhaps best described as an acquired taste, especially the Liszt, which combines a late solo piano work with quoted excerpts of Wagner’s Parsifal.
The concert was interspersed with movements from two Masses by the great Italian 17th-century composer Claudio Monterverdi, the Missa da capella a sei voci “In illo tempore” based on a motet by Gombert, published with the famous Vespers in 1610 and Missa a Quattro voci da cappela published in 1650 which intriguingly straddles the prima and seconda prattica or polyphony as opposed to basso continuo or chordal writing. The latter is a highly unusual and wonderful work and although I was not convinced by McCaughey’s Romantic interpretation, it was very good to hear once again. It is written with organ accompaniment though this became an excruciating addition when the ensemble sank in pitch by a semitone early on in the Kyrie that endured throughout the Gloria. The ensemble was evidently unused to singing polyphony with each part singing quite independently without regard for one other. Beauty, however, was found in baritone Lucien Fischer’s singing of the Agnus Dei plainchant.
Although pitch, tuning, rapport and ability to accurately follow a clear beat remained consistent problems, given the difficulty of the repertoire for an amateur choir, this was a solid achievement. German particularly, but also Latin pronunciation suffered throughout. The instrumentalists, one of whom later joined the choir, were all professional musicians, and contributed their best.
Friedrich Nietzsche’s odd though most heartfelt Hymnus an das Leben (1882) setting poetry by his partner Lou Andreas-Salomé sounded naïve and unconvincing in Gottwald’s 6-part arrangement with orchestra reduced to six musicians by John McCaughey.
All of this said, the outstanding highlights of this concert were two works by the great American Modernist, Morton Feldman (Voices for Instruments 1 and 2, 1972) and Earle Brown’s Small Piece for large choirs, No 1 (1969).
The crystalline perfection of Feldman’s exquisite music has the ability to stun. A contemporary genius, his work takes inspiration from the visual arts, particularly the work of Mark Rothko; ecstatic, still and highly refined. Voices and Instruments 2 was the highlight of the concert; with three upper voices accompanied by flute, two cellos and double bass it resembled the purity of a Calder mobile floating in air.
The printed program could have been more carefully proofread.
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Astra Choir – Voices and Instruments
Instrumentalists:
Greg Lee, flute
Tamara Kohler, flute
Michael Pisani, cor anglais
Craig Hill, clarinet
Elise Millman, bassoon
Geoff Lierse, horn
Alister Barker, cello
Chien Hsui Ong, cello
Nicholas Synot, double bass
Timothy Phillips, timpani and bells
Kim Bastin, piano and organ
Presented by Astra Concerts
Music by Morton Feldman, Claudio Monteverdi, Friedrich Nietzsche, Franz Liszt, Gustav Mahler and Earle Brown
