On an early summer’s afternoon we were treated to not just one, but two mass settings with five lively but mystical songs in between. It was very much a concert for the Usher Hall organ and the organist. Morley Whitehead is organist at Morningside Parish Church. Indeed last week he and the Edinburgh Royal Choral Union were the featured choir on BBC Radio Two’s Sunday Half Hour.
The Edinburgh Royal Choral Union had as their guests the Halifax Choral Society, founded in 1817 and the oldest of all choral societies. In all there were 155 voices. Two months earlier Edinburgh had sung with Halifax in their Victoria Theatre.
Michael Bawtree’s conducting was lively and effective and the voices crisp and clear. For much of the time he, on his podium looking up to his choir, was all that filled the area normally occupied by an orchestra. Every so often the conductor was seen taking his cue from the organist’s nod.
Widor’s Mass was written for the two choirs and two organs of the vast St Sulpice Church in the centre of Paris where for very many years Widor, born in 1844 and died in 1937, was organist. It is impressive and the combined choir and Usher Hall organ demonstrated this. Morley Whitehead played part of Widor’s Symphonie No 8 in B minor as Cantabile before the Sanctus. Bruckner’s Ave Maria followed immediately.
For light relief, Michael Bawtree was joined by the young Brazilian baritone, Michel de Souza who clearly enjoyed himself and gave us great pleasure, singing Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs: Easter, I got me flowers, Love bade me welcome, The call and Antiphon. Antiphon is the well known hymn, Let all the world in ev’ry corner sing, and the choir gave it their all.
After the interval we heard a mass setting written at the end of the second world war by Zoltán Kodály in Budapest. Missa Brevis opens and closes with solo organ and unlike some mass settings runs through without great repetitions. As expected it came across as chirpier than the earlier Widor. Rebecca Afonwy-Jones, mezzo-soprano, and Jonathan Cooke, tenor, joined the baritone, Michel de Souza, to give breadth and youth to the relatively recently composed but reverend music.
Event: Sunday 30 May 2010, 3.00 pm