Reviews

..... The finale's wide-open spaces expanded with a precise and generous sense of deliberation - [Marin] Alsop's control and vision were masterly here - but even this didn't prepare me for the incredible entry of the chorus, not only for the aural marvel of one of the plumpest pianissimos I have ever heard - a real wall of sound - but also for the visual spectacle of the colossal choir erupting from the front stalls, the annexes, the boxes either side of the auditorium, not to mention as part of the chorus conventionally placed behind the orchestra.....

Laudate Dominum - 28th November 2009

A large and appreciative audience packed St James’s Church, Piccadilly on 28th November to hear the Amici Chamber Choir perform Laudate Dominum: a thrilling concert of music for voices, brass and organ. The choir was conducted by new musical director Jeremy Haneman and was accompanied by Westminster Brass Ensemble and Erik Dippenaar (organist) with soloists Charlotte Mobbs (soprano), Laura Trayhurn (mezzo-soprano), William Petter (tenor) and Hubert Matthews (bass-baritone).

The first part of the concert featured works in the Venetian style for double choir, with the brass players and soloists located in the gallery above, to recreate the polychoral effect for which this music is so well known. Singet dem Herrn by Schütz was followed by Monteverdi’s Ave Maris Stella, arranged from the famous Vespers of 1610 for voices and brass by Richard Jackson.

Westminster Brass Ensemble, led by Sharon Broughall, then played three short pieces by Gabrieli, Locke and Rameau, after which the choir sang two further pieces by Gabrieli: O Jesu Mi Dulcissime and, to conclude the first half, In Ecclesiis, showing off the three sections of instruments, choir and soloists.

The second half of the concert consisted of two works by Mozart: the well-known Ave Verum Corpus (which the choir sang from memory) and the Vesperae Solennes de Confessore for choir and organ. The contrasting sombre and joyful moods of the five psalms and the Magnificat were brought out by the varying tempi and the alternating dark and light musical colours, making a wonderful end to the evening.

Night and Day - 27th June 2009
The Amici Chamber choir gave its first concert with Jeremy Haneman as its new permanent Musical Director at Kenton Methodist Church on 27th June 2009. Celebrating American music of the 20th and 21st centuries, the programme of 12 choral items and two piano performances encompassed a wide variety of styles and genres from folksong through jazz and film music to deeply religious and mystical expressions of love and anguish.

A love song by Jerome Kern was followed by George Shearing’s light-hearted jazz settings of well-known songs from Shakespeare plays. Then the mood changed abruptly as the choir sang Morten Lauridsen’s Nocturnes: settings of sonnets in French and Spanish by Rilke and Neruda respectively, both involving complex harmonies calling for considerable accuracy and sensitivity. After a piano solo performance by Michalis Angelakis of Gershwin’s Three Preludes, the first performance of Noah Wilke’s Blundering Nature was given. Inspired by Charles Darwin’s loss of faith following the death of his daughter, this short meditation called for some unusual vocal techniques, including the use of harmonics and aleatoric movement of the parts, with each singer choosing when to move to the next note. Two pieces by Eric Whitacre (with Mary Kelleher as soloist) continued the vein of extended meditation with dynamic contrasts and harmonies also requiring a high standard of accuracy and tone control.

On a lighter note, the choir sang two Cole Porter numbers (including Night and Day) and two American folksongs arranged by Daryl Runswick: The Streets of Laredo included a moving solo by Jeremy Bryans and Frog Went a-Courtin’ saw the choir pick up cardboard tubes to use as percussion! Jacqueline Pott and Giles Clayton gave us a spirited rendition of the folk tune Shaker Melody from Appalachian Spring and the theme tune from The magnificent seven. After Ward Swingle’s Give Us This Day, a prayer for the environment, the concert concluded with selections from Porgy and Bess, providing a rousing finale.

This was one of the most demanding programmes the choir has undertaken, with its wide variety of styles and significant technical requirements and was well received by an appreciative audience.

The concert was in aid of St Luke’s Hospice (Harrow & Brent) and the choir was delighted that the event raised over £350 for the Hospice.

Lamentoso - Music for Passiontide - 21st March 2009

The Amici Chamber Choir, with guest conductor Duncan Aspden and organist Christian Wilson, performed a beautiful programme of European music for Passiontide at St John the Baptist Church, Pinner on Saturday 21st March 2009.

In the first half, the choir sang Renaissance motets by composers from Italy, Spain and the UK. Some of these pieces are well-known – for example, Lotti’s ‘Crucifixus’ – while others are less frequently performed, including ‘Trahe me post te’, an early motet by Francisco Guerrero, conjoining a prayer to the Virgin Mary with the eroticism of the Old Testament Song of Songs. Purcell’s ‘Jehova, quam multi sunt hostes mei’, taken from Psalm 3, featured solos by Giles Clayton and Jeremy Bryans.

Christian performed two organ solos: Variations on a well-known chorale by Sweelinck and, in the second half, Max Reger’s ‘Benedictus’.

The music moved forward three hundred years in the second half, starting with the well-known ‘Os justi’ by Bruckner and two motets by Rheinberger, with a solo from Giles Clayton. The choir then moved into the distance to perform R Vaughan Williams’ ‘O vos omnes’, featuring the undulating melodic style and ‘medieval’ harmonies well-known from the later ‘Mass in G Minor’. The choir then processed forward from the darkness to the quasi-chant of Salieri’s ‘De profundis’ to achieve a fortissimo blaze of light, finishing the concert with the pianissimo of Bruckner’s ‘Christus factus est’.

Haydn Theresienmesse and Bach Jesu Meine Freude - 29th November 2008

The 27-strong Amici Chamber Choir, with its guest conductor Jeremy Haneman, gave a highly successful concert of works by Bach and Haydn in St James’s Church, Piccadilly on 29 November 2009. This wonderful Wren church, with its Grinling Gibbons carvings, provided the perfect venue.

The programme opened with the well-known chorale Jesu, joy of man’s desiring from JS Bach’s Cantata 147, played on the organ by Anthony McCarthy and accompanied by the choir. Anthony then gave a spirited rendition of Bach’s Concerto in G major (after Vivaldi). This was followed by the Bach motet Jesu, meine Freude. Jeremy took the choir and the audience on a spiritual journey, starting with the love of Jesus, passing through the fear of earthly terrors and temptation and on to the renunciation of earthly pleasures and resignation to the love of God. The choir sang the chorales unaccompanied, while Anthony provided a light accompaniment to the complex contrapuntal settings of the words of St Paul in his Letter to the Romans. The trio of soloists – Susan Devlin (contralto), Adam Tunnicliffe (tenor) and Ørjan Hartveit (bass) – took the fugato portraying the Spirit at a truly spirited pace. As the journey drew to a close, the choir sang ever more piano, creating, at the close, an almost tangible sense of calm stillness.

In complete contrast, the choir, solo quartet (now including soprano Sonya Prentice) and organ performed Haydn’s ‘Maria Theresa’ Mass. This glorious setting of the Latin Mass allowed organ, choir and soloists to display a range of styles, reflecting the moods of prayer, thanksgiving and belief implied by the various parts of the Mass.

The Amici Chamber Choir has benefited enormously from Jeremy’s training during the autumn of 2008 and members all wish to thank him for his painstaking work, which culminated in a lovely event that was warmly received by the 145 people in the audience.