The British composer Thomas Adès’ opera Powder Her Face took its inspiration from the scandalous and salacious divorce of the Duchess of Argyll in 1963. Adès, who was born in London in 1971, learned about it when the Duchess died. His opera was first performed in 1995. We heard a suite of highlights from the Opera written twelve years later. Overture, Waltz and Finale have in them familiar dance tunes but Adès has very cleverly pulled them apart and more or less put them back together - but not quite.
Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, performed by strings only, comes high on the list of popular sacred music. Written for the Three Choirs Festival it was Gloucester’s turn in 1910 and its first performance took place in Gloucester’s magnificent cathedral. There’s just a hint of the three months the composer had spent studying with Ravel in Paris in 1908.
To create the acoustics of a cathedral, nine members of the Orchestra were separate and high up behind their colleagues whilst the four leaders played as if a separate quartet. In his pre-concert talk William Chandler, who was leading the breakaway nine, told us of their difficulties being apart from the main orchestra of knowing when to start playing - and that sound reverberation in rehearsal in an empty Usher Hall was not the same when filled with what was a capacity audience.
Once we reached the interval we had enjoyed both sacred and profane - but there was more profanity to come with Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. Manuscripts discovered in a Bavarian monastery in 1803 were poking fun, sometimes very irreverently, at the Roman Catholic Church.
For an hour and for the first time as Music Director, Peter Oundjian had his entire team in front of him, RSNO Orchestra, RSNO Chorus and RSNO Junior Chorus with three soloists. Daniel Taylor, the countertenor, was really enjoying himself. Peter Oundjian's remarks to us at the beginning had been inspiring and enthusiastic. It was a great evening, different and adventurous, and the audience showed that they had received more than their money’s worth.
Event: Friday 9 November 2012 at 7.30pm