The First Nowell

Britten Sinfonia, City of London Choir, cond. Daniel Hyde 

4th December 2024, Cadogan Hall 

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"Although Christmas has, for a long time now, been partially hijacked by American imagery, we still retain a little of British tradition. Dickens, of course, springs to mind, but, in the back of our minds, there’s often a romantic (and, probably, mostly constructed) yearning for a small parish church in a snowy country landscape, with carol singers calling at the village houses, lanterns aglow. This kind of nostalgia for a rural idyll (in whatever season), of course, perfused the writing of the English pastoralists, and a concert that featured their Christmas compositions (along with one by Benjamin Britten, who despite being a contemporary, actively disliked this backward-looking style), seemed like a perfect start to the round of 2024’s Christmas themed concerts.

 

City of London Choir acquired a new director this year in the form of Daniel Hyde (who is also Director of Music at King’s College, Cambridge). This is not to decry the sterling work the choir’s long-term director Hilary Davan Wetton did with the choir, but CLC seem to have a new spring in their step, as Wednesday evening’s concert was the best I have ever heard them sing. Co-ordination was absolutely spot-on throughout; balance was immaculate, and Hyde coaxed some splendid dynamic subtleties out of them, as well as some deliciously warm homogenous timbres (a good quantity of which this repertoire demands). Britten Sinfonia are always at the top of their game, and this concert (albeit that it involved just some of their string section) was no exception: interpretation, balance with each other and the singers, and so on, were matchless.

 

First off the blocks was a bit of a rarity: Gerald Finzi’s 1952 non-liturgical setting of the Magnificat. Seemingly, Finzi had difficulties finding a new voice for these words (unsurprisingly: this was a period where British church music was awash with settings of the canticle for Evensong). This struggle tells a little in the music, as Finzi keeps repeating lines of text, obviously in an effort to make this into a more extended and concert-friendly work. Overall, though, it’s a pleasant piece full of (slightly obvious) word painting, which both choir and instruments, under Hyde’s meticulous direction, delivered with exactitude (a solid – but not overblown – forte for ‘he that is mighty’; crisp triplets for ‘he hath scattered the proud’; a nicely observed diminuendo on ‘holy is His name’).

 

John Ireland’s short The Holy Boy underwent several iterations, and for their solo spot, Britten Sinfonia opted for the 1941 version for strings, presenting a delicate account that was full of dynamic variety even with the overall subdued mood.

 

Finzi’s cantata In terra pax used almost never to be heard on concert platforms, but in recent years it seems to have become part of the repertoire. And deservedly so – a tear-jerking setting of words by Robert Bridges the year before the outbreak of the Great War, interleaved with the angel’s announcement to the shepherds from Luke’s gospel, it’s the heart of that ‘English winter pastoral’. CLC and the orchestra brought all of their skill to the work, turning in a peerless performance full of subtle fervour and carefully controlled timbres. Gareth Brynmor John brought a honed edge to the baritone solo work that suited the frosty landscape of the piece well (the ring on ‘bright stars’ was fabulous). Soprano Claire Filer has a gorgeously full voice which, in other circumstances, would have been a delight to hear, but a bell-like tone suits Finzi’s angel best, and this was perhaps a little fruity for the part.

 

It’s a bit of a divider. Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols was originally written for upper voices (Britten expressed a preference for boy trebles) and harp, but the composer sanctioned the full-choir version by Julius Harrison performed on Wednesday. Certainly, this latter adaptation opens the piece up to groups like CLC, and it allows the work to have a richer, more varied sound, but some of us prefer the more crystalline original, whose higher pitches feel like snowflakes dancing in the frosty air (particularly the near chaotic interplay of passages in ‘This Little Babe’, which lose their piquancy when sung at different octaves). Along with Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, this is a work that’s bread and butter for harpists, but it would be difficult to match Sally Pryce’s account here: every note was judged for volume, placing and timbre to provide the perfect atmosphere. The choir, in spite of being numerous, turned in a nuanced performance, handling those breathless swaps of material with panache: the contrast between the upper voices’ quiet fluidity and the lower voices’ percussive quality in ‘There is no Rose’ was special indeed. Claire Filer joined the choir once again for those sections that can work only with a solo performer, and here, despite her charming account of ‘That Yonge Childe’, the richness of her voice, alas, took the work even further from its original incorporeal concept.

 

Performances of Vaughan Williams’ The First Nowell are, surprisingly (given the composer’s substantial Yuletide output) rare. The piece demonstrates the side of Vaughan Williams that was the supreme ‘jobbing composer’ – writing and adapting works for forces and occasion. It’s the incidental music for a Nativity play, and as such, doesn’t intrude with over-complex writing; there’s a deal of unison singing and reasonably simple string writing that would make it perfect for amateur performance; as always, it’s chock full of the composer’s collected folk tunes. Needless to say, both choir and strings gave it a superlative account, and brought out all of its small subtleties (for example: precision for the dotted homophony over elegant little string interludes in ‘The Salutation Carol’; tip-top co-ordination between energetic strings and the legato unison melody in ‘How brightly shone’). Gareth Brynmor John’s solo work was effortlessly excellent, and here, Claire Filer’s richer tones felt more at home, particularly for her account of ‘As Joseph was a-walking’."​

​***** Barry Creasy, MusicOMH​