Saint Nicolas
Tenor: Peter Davoren
Organ: Philip Scriven
Piano: Jakob Rothoff & David Harvey
With The Choir of St. Thomas-on-The Bourne (conductor: Jordan Theis)
Britten: A Hymn to the Virgin
Franz Biebl: Ave Maria
Britten: Rejoice in the Lamb
Britten: Corpus Christi Carol
Jonathan Dove: Seek Him that Maketh the Seven Stars
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Britten: Saint Nicolas
At this concert we were delighted to be performing with The Choir of St. Thomas-on-The Bourne and their conductor Jordan Theis. We had already enjoyed working with Jordan when he had stood in at some of our recent rehearsals when Richard was on concert duty, but this was the first time that we had sung with the excellent St Thomas Choir.
Appropriately enough, given the date of the concert (Saint Nicholas's Day), the main work was Benjamin Britten's Saint Nicolas, a joyful Cantata for choir, tenor soloist, two pianos, organ, strings, a whole host of drums, cymbal, triangle, tambourine - and even a whip. To crown it all, the piece also includes audience participation, with two well-known hymns worked in to the piece!
It tells in wonderfully imaginative and dramatic form the story of the legendary life of the fourth century Saint Nicolas, Bishop of Myra (also known as Santa Claus!) from his birth and early life, through his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, to his appointment as Bishop, imprisonment as a martyr, his 'piety and marvellous works' (did we mention the Pickled Boys?!) and his death.
Saint Nicolas is a testament to the great skill with which Britten combines music and theatre, but also to the palpable sense of humanity inherent in his writing. He wrote it as a piece that could be performed by one or more school choirs, with only a small number of professional musicians needed. The tenor solo part, however (written for Peter Pears) is a challenging one, and we were delighted to welcome back BBC Singer Peter Davoren, who had sung with us in this church in our Puccini programme back in October 2023.
We were also very pleased that our friends Philip Scriven and Jakob Rothoff were with us, along with David Harvey, who had stood in at very short notice for one of our rehearsals when Jakob was indisposed, plus the Chameleon Arts Ensemble, whose members had the joy of playing all those wacky percussion instruments!
The concert also featured three other works by Britten, one of which - the Corpus Christi Carol - the St Thomas-on-The Bourne Choir performed on their own, as well as pieces by Franz Biebl and Jonathan Dove.
The following review by Gordon Tyerman appearedin the Farnham Herald online on 13 December, and in the print edition on 18 December.