VOX conducted by Elizabeth Scott. Photo by Keith Saunders.
Formed in 2001 and since 2008 under the enthusiastic direction of Elizabeth Scott, VOX is Sydney Philharmonia Choirs’ ensemble of younger singers aged between 18 and 30. Many having graduated from Gondwana Voices, the choir clearly enjoys a high level of musical literacy. In this 2019 Season VOX appears on its own only once and we hope that next year, the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs’ centenary, there will be greater exposure. On Sunday afternoon their concert proved a rewarding experience.
Singing quite challenging unaccompanied repertoire for over an hour, the ensemble distinguished itself for fine tuning, careful phrasing, disciplined and attractive presentation. It has been said that one may judge the strength of a country’s culture by how well its young sing and here we witnessed some genuinely heart-warming and joyous singing, not only conveyed in sound but on the faces of its 61 members.
A cleverly programmed recital featured an eclectic collection of works portraying memories of childhood ranging from innocence, dreaming, frivolity and playfulness through to more tragic emotions associated with death, fear and loss. The recital in the Utzon Room opened with Latvian composer Eriks Esenvalds’s eight-part setting Only in Sleep composed in 2010. Sung from memory, as was much of the material in this concert, the work immediately demonstrated a very strong soprano and alto line, though good tenors and basses occasionally required closer focus and sharper attention to detail. Annabel Jeffrey’s opening soprano solos were fresh and finely controlled. Nigel Westlake’s complex setting of Nasce la gioia mia (My joy is born) adapted from his Missa Solis: Requiem for Eli almost screamed with agony as the father was no longer able to see his son.
By complete contrast it was a real joy to hear Martin Wesley Smith’s now decades old, though still politically pertinent, jazzy tongue-in-cheek settings of Who stopped the rain? and excerpts from Who Killed Cock Robin? that bopped along with noteworthy solos and an engaging caterpillar impersonation provided by Miriam Jeffrey.
Our emotional yo-yo continued with James MacMillan’s A Child’s Prayer written as a response to the Dunblane Primary School massacre in 1996 with the performance on this occasion dedicated to the victims and families of the recent Christchurch tragedy. The work is static and still with a repeated motif over which the voices of Atalya Masi and Jess Franke floated angelically before reaching searing pain at the work’s climax. Karl Jenkins’s repetitive And the mother did weep that sets the text of ‘Stabat Mater’ in English, Aramaic, Greek and Latin suffered from some uncertainly pitched chromaticism, while highly popular Eric Whitacre’s way-too-long When David Heard lamenting the slaying of Absalom came off as self-indulgent in its opening overly sweet pathos. After a climax that exceeded the comfortable dynamic range of the space, the work’s tediously meandering final pages pay significant debt to the music of Arvo Pärt, with fragmented phrases separated by silence straining the limits of patience. John Rutter’s attractively naïve Five Childhood Lyrics (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and Sing a Song of Sixpence) followed.
A true highlight of the recital was Australian Ella Macens’s Neviens Putnins, an evocative setting of a touching Latvian lullaby. Both tender and delicate, it was interspersed with impressive solos by sopranos Amelia Myers and Lucy Bruton, and altos Kay Hughson and Emma Gosbell. The recital concluded in lighter spirits with two excellent arrangements (by Carl Crossin and Andrew Piper) of Sting’s Fragile and an ebullient rendering of Stevie Wonder’s Isn’t She Lovely (written in response to the birth of his daughter).
Elizabeth Scott’s minimal and effective direction throughout ensured a polished, rare outing of this impressive ensemble that promises to go from strength to strength.
3 ½ stars ★★★☆
Presented by Sydney Philharmonia Choirs
Music Director: Elizabeth Scott
24 March 2019
Utzon Room, Sydney Opera House
