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REVIEW:HIGHGATE CHORAL SOCIETY
All Hallow's Gospel Oak
HOW do you say “veruju v jedinogo Boga?”
Or “I zivota budustago veka?” Well, there was lots more of that in Janá?ek’s Glagolitic Mass sung by the Highgate Choral Society at All Hallows,’ Gospel Oak on Saturday.
Actually, nobody knows the pronunciation of Glagolitic, a form of Slav language used over 1,000 years ago, distinct centuries ago. It was used by Janá?ek for his 1926 mass to reflect his passionate Czech nationalism and, in the process, he turned the work into one of considerable challenges for any choir.
The music, much drawn on Moravian folk music, is wonderful. Conducted by Ronald Corp, it was wonderfully played by the New London Orchestra and well sung by the Highgate singers.
You had to feel sorry for choir members putting hours of work to learn how to pronounce the dead Glagolitic language. Barely a word could be discerned, sitting at the back of the church, except for the likes of the three-syllable “Bog Sabaoth”.
Possibly so much rehearsal time was spent on the Janá?ek Mass that not enough time was left for the Mozart Requiem.
As the most glorious piece of choral music ever written, the choir could not have but sounded magnificent. Sopranos and altos delivered sounds of pure joy, particularly their exposed, difficult “Voca me” entry with altos in the Confutatis, and tenors were unusually persuasive in their runs.
But taken as a whole the performance lacked conviction. Momentum flagged in the fugues, and the quest for Mozartian effervescence was not helped by basses singing in their boots. The concert benefited from some fine singing by soloists, including Holloway mezzo Olivia Ray.
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