Brighton Orpheus Choir
conducted by Stella Hull

Frédérique Klooster (soprano)
Kerri-Lynne Dietz (mezzo-soprano)
Rupert Charlesworth (tenor)
Thomas Lowe (bass)

“ But my dear Beethoven, what is it that you have done now?” exclaimed Prince Nikolaus Esterházy II on first hearing the composer’s Mass in C. Each year the prince commissioned a special mass to be sung on his wife’s name day. Haydn had composed some of his greatest works in this genre whilst in the employ of this eminent family at Eisenstadt and he may well have been influential in promoting his ex-pupil Beethoven for this commission of 1807. The prince found the work “unbearably ridiculous and detestable”, whilst Beethoven himself, having accepted the task with initial trepidation, regarded the music as “especially dear to my heart”. He had written Christ on the Mount of Olives in 1803, but this was his first mass setting. Contemporary with his 4th piano concerto, 5th and 6th symphonies, and mighty middle period sonatas and quartets, he consciously set the text “in a manner in which it has been rarely treated”. Indeed its setting evidences Beethoven’s personal and emotional response to the drama of the Mass whilst still employing many of the Viennese customary structural devices. Beethoven’s orchestral forces are larger than those of Haydn but are put to a more romantic use and his harmonic palette is more adventurous. Whilst the use of chorus and solo quartet are similar, the chorus is frequently employed in striking octaves, creating at times a suggestion of medieval plainsong, as well as a vehicle of dramatic response to the text.

The opening Kyrie is restrained and similar to that of Haydn’s Nelson Mass with its pastoral parallel 3rds. Repeatedly a murmur rises to surge expectantly in rather anxious pleas. The Gloria opens in an ascending blaze of praise in excelsis Deo (to God in the highest) with dramatic piano contrasts at et in terra pax (and on earth peace) and adoramus te (we worship thee). The slower Qui tollis peccata mundi (who takes away the sins of the world) is taken up by the solo quartet with choral miserere refrain. The joyful concluding section of the Gloria is treated traditionally as a finely worked fugue and is full of abrupt dynamic changes before the final jubilant Amen.

The Credo provides Beethoven with much scope for word-painting and emotional response to text. Beginning with tentative belief the dynamic builds to a bold assertion of faith; the unison melodic descent of Et invisibilium is accompanied by almost imperceptible pizzicato strings; Deum de Deo (God from God) and lumen de lumine (Light from Light) mysteriously emerge from the orchestra before powerful octave leaps in Deum verum de Deo vero (True God from true God); then descendit de coelis (descended from heaven) makes a final dramatic descent before a clarinet falling line symbolises the incarnation then to be sung by the quartet. The chorus take on mankind’s responsibility for the violent crucifixus with a chromatic, descending sub Pontio Pilato, agonising passus (died) and final stuttering et sepultus est. The lively final section of the Credo begins with Et resurrexit and ends with the fugal et vitam venturi saeculi (and everlasting life) and assertive Amens.

The brief Sanctus (Holy) has a hushed sense of awe enhanced by the added solemnity of the timpani. Pleni sunt coeli .... (heaven and earth are full of thy glory) springs into exuberant life followed by an imitative jubilant Hosanna in the highest. The beautifully serene Benedictus (Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord) is sung by the solo quartet with choral interjections before bursting into a repetition of the bright Hosanna. The Agnus Dei portrays the anguish of the Lamb of God, the weighty peccata mundi (sins of the world) and fervent pleas for mercy. The plea for peace Dona nobis pacem begins brightly but is disturbed by uneasy, almost desperate misereres, as though peace is not easily achieved nor sustained. The music is finally brought to rest with the opening music of the Kyrie.

At this concert we were joining a network of choirs around the UK in asking the whole audience to join in singing the famous chorus that ends Part 2 of Handel's Messiah.   There were copies for all voices there on the evening. We were thus part of the BBC Sing Hallelujah! initiative to involve choirs in this way and at the concert we made a collection for Children in Need. See more about the choir supporting charities.

Helen Arnold (harp)
Frédérique Klooster (soprano)
Kerri-Lynne Dietz (mezzo)

After three very successful years in America, in March 1942 Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears boarded a Swedish cargo vessel the Axel Johnson for their return to Britain. It was a long and boring journey that took nearly a month, always with the threat that U-boat activity was then at its height. Before leaving, Britten had started the Hymn to St. Cecilia and a piece for Benny Goodman. He intended to finish these on board ship, but customs officials confiscated the manuscripts on the doubtful proposition that they could be a secret code!  During the voyage they stopped at Halifax, Nova Scotia, where Britten came across a book of mediaeval poems, and during the voyage it was some of these that he set as A Ceremony of Carols. The setting was originally for boys choir and harp. Britten had in fact always been intending to write a harp concerto, so had been studying the instrument.

A Ceremony of Carols opens and ends with a procession to the plainsong Hodie Christus natus est.  The first song Wolcum Yule welcomes the birth of the heavenly king. Short and contrasting settings of the mediæval poems follow, varying from Balulalow - Mary's lullaby for the infant Jesus - to the vigorous scamper of This little babe, promising that Christ has come "to rifle Satan's fold - all hell doth at his presence quake".

An interlude for solo harp leads into a second half with the babe first in a freezing winter night, then a Spring Carol of awakening leading to the final excited song Deo gracias which reconciles the fall of Adam - "if he had not taken the apple there would have been no need for Our Lady to be the heavenly Queen".