“Feel the Spirit” - Saturday 16th July

at Shrewsbury Abbey

Selecting music for Summer Choral concerts is not easy. The general belief is that, in the fading warmth of a July evening, we do not want to be blasted by the heavier end of the choral repertoire, with Hell-Fire and Damnation shaking our - imaginary - glass of Pimms. The easy solution therefore is to head off to the choral Salad Bar and offer the audience assorted chunks of well worn Opera choruses topped off by a couple of Mozart overtures.

Shrewsbury Choral’s concert in Shrewsbury Abbey on July 16 took a very different approach. It was deliberately focused on the Americas, North and South, with the centrepiece being an Argentinian setting of the Catholic Mass which few of us would have known much about prior to the concert. The choir was joined for the evening by Felicity Buckland (Mezzo-Soprano) and Jonathan Cooke (Tenor) who gave us a selection of works which may well have been more familiar to us, but which had been arranged so the audience heard them through a very different aural lens.

We are all familiar with songs like ‘O Danny Boy’, the ‘Skye Boat Song’ and the like, but perhaps not when arranged by more modern composers like Britten and Bob Chilcott, both of whom add a distinctly new twist to the music. Jonathan not only sang these songs with his fine Tenor voice ringing around the Abbey but his operatic skills came through as he acted out the songs in ways which resonated with the varying moods of each one. Felicity came into her own with a stunning performance of Gershwin’s ‘Summertime’ with its jazz-based melancholy bringing the Abbey to a standstill for a few minutes when the audience couldn’t take its eyes – and ears - off her.

Shrewsbury Choral and Jonathan Cooke then gave us Ariel Ramirez’s ‘Misa Criolla’. Few of us are knowledgeable about South American Religious music, and this piece, composed in 1963 just after the Vatican had relaxed its restrictions on vernacular settings of the Mass, was a breath of fresh air in the way it had been put together.

The musical rhythms of Argentina pulse through this work, and its light, brightly textured feel makes it very approachable. The soloist attacked the piece with great panache and involvement, and the choir sounded very comfortable in such an unfamiliar piece. The sopranos gave the performance a solid shape throughout its many changing textures and the Tenors particularly added depth and energy throughout, with the whole choir, though not great in number, punching much above its weight.

The first half closed with memorably sensuous performances of duets from Bizet and Bernstein’s West Side Story.

The concert’s second half was given over to a set of seven African-American spirituals set for Mezzo-Soprano and mixed choir – ‘Feel the Spirit’ by John Rutter. Rutter comes from a long line of English composers steeped in the Cambridge choral tradition, and is perhaps not someone you’d immediately associate with music of this type. We all know most of the songs but the combination of soloist and choir provides a different feel to the music which is varyingly jazz-lively and then quietly introspective. The choir tempered their style excellently to the various moods required and Felicity’s honeyed, mezzo tones were ideally suited to the sonorities demanded by the music. The choir gathered pace throughout the seven songs and the whole concert came to a rip-roaring climax with ‘When the Saints Go Marching in’, ably supported by the more vociferous elements of the audience.

Special mention is required here for two individuals – Martin Cook, the Choir’s Musical Director and John Bowen, accompanist extraordinaire. These two gentlemen are the heartbeat which powers the choir and it is their vision and commitment which creates special evenings like this. Martin conducts firmly or flexibly as required and his responsiveness to the musical mood changes, particularly necessary in a concert as varied as this, is so effective that you don’t notice it happening - a real sign of someone who knows precisely what they’re doing.

John Bowen provided a wonderful accompaniment to the evening’s proceedings. At times sounding like a fair-sized orchestra, and at other times caressing the piano keys with great delicacy, his support to the choir and soloists never missed a beat. He blended in seamlessly with the singers but, if you took the trouble to concentrate on his contribution, you couldn’t fail to be impressed.

If you look back to the Choral’s last concert in April, 48 hours before the choir performed Haydn’s ‘Creation’, the original organist had to cancel so John had to jump in to provide the solo accompaniment to this vast work on the Abbey’s newly refurbished organ. If you now look forward to the choir’s next concert in November, the choir will give the first ever performance of a newly completed ‘Requiem – In an Age of Anxiety’ which John has composed over the Covid lockdown. Achievements like these should make us recognise and appreciate the quality and depth of individual musicianship we have around us in Shrewsbury - we are so lucky.

Finally, if you judge how well a concert has gone by the number and size of smiles on the faces of the audience as they leave the venue, then Shrewsbury Choral and the two soloists can chalk up another solid success.

REC – 30 July 2022