REVIEW: Angmering Chorale concert with Worthing Philharmonic Orchestra

Handel, Coronation Anthem No 1, ‘Zadok The Priest’; Mozart, Symphony No 31 in D ‘Paris’ K297 (with original andantino middle movement); Haydn, Te Deum in C; Mozart, Requiem in D minor (in the standard Sussmayer completion).

Angmering Chorale’s fresh new era was brought east and announced to Worthing in the threefold classical splendour on Sunday. A famous Handel shout, an upscaled Mozart’s Symphony in the same luminous musical key, then, in another, Haydn’s Te Deum for the people to sing unadorned by any soloists. And after the interval’s rejoicing, tragic Mozart’s Requiem – perhaps to salute and commemorate the Chorale’s past, but in the form of a particularly humane connective work.

Formed in 1976, in then still a village, Angmering Chorale’s opulent home concert stadium was Arundel Cathedral, ground-shared with Arun Choral Society. Their director George Jones retired in November. What is stated next is not historically verified through continuous records, but Chorale chair John Heaton believes already this quartet of firsts has been set this year . . . they’d never before performed even in their own parish church of St Margaret, nor ever on a Sunday afternoon, never before with their neighbouring Worthing Philharmonic Orchestra, nor in their neighbouring major venue, Worthing Assembly Hall.

The catalyst turning this new page? Dominic Grier, the WPO’s musical director, with an international career, who just a couple of years ago switched his base from London to Worthing, his purpose to build along the coastal conurbation a more concentrated working presence around his WPO with his symphonic, operatic, ballet and choral expertise and experience, while his conductor teaching and vocal coaching work continues at the Royal Academy of Music and Royal Opera House.

rier and his Worthing Philharmonic Orchestra partner Aedan Kerney’s Worthing Choral Society with marked success at Christmas, but Grier was up and ready to add busier choral work with a body of enthusiastic and capable local voices under his own choral director’s baton. That potential he examined in that St Margaret’s concert in April with its organ, in repertoire sweeping from Renaissance right across the board. Now he is training Angmering Chorale in parallel with his WPO and the two look certain to appear in tandem again.

Progress in only a few months delights both he and the choir themselves. And on Sunday, we saw how much WPO musicians also like singing. Oboists Clare Thornton-Wood and Jacqui Greaney, first horn John Peskett and flautist Olly Parr spent time in voice as well as puff, swapping orchestral seats for the choir. Multi-instrumentalist Parr is Angmering Chorale’s rehearsal pianist.

Chris Peryagh and Julie Schofield’s unusual clarinets with saxophone-like bells and cello-like spike stands were the old-style basset horns, bringing their authentic cloudier tone to the Requiem’s grieving moments. Rarely seen, rarely heard instruments. Would they be in his ‘Paris’ Symphony, too? Logically no. The characteristically large orchestra engaged to premiere the 22-year-old Mozart’s new work and spearhead his quest for a salaried composing post in the French capital boasted the new ‘modern’ clarinets. Their brighter sound inspired the Symphony’s popular exuberance.

Mozart had landed this commission, but no Parisian job – and his accompanying mother had died while they were there. Not much ran smoothly. The Frenchman paying for this ‘Paris’ Symphony, Joseph Le Gros, and the audiences, identified with its flamboyant style but were less excited by its slower middle movement. To order, Mozart had to write another, which produced the more smiling one routinely heard and enjoyed today. But the now unfamiliar reject was the one Grier unexpectedly picked here. It sounded flatter in melodic contour and contrast but its typically heart-warming tailpiece to its main theme showed why Mozart had placed his first faith in it.

The WPO performance of the Symphony drew applause for its opening movement – something one imagines happened in Paris.

This was a concert of music to delight and rejuvenate the Angmering Chorale singers themselves, to ensure this triumph with their wholehearted commitment in this collective moment of new adventure. Nearly 40-strong, they were full-voiced, invigorated and convincing, with satisfying intonation and diction.

Zadoc was their rousing lungs-opener and exclamatory scene setter, and they’d have been relishing straightway getting their vocal chords around the Haydn. Instead, they had to contain themselves while Mozart’s Symphony widened the occasion beyond just another sing. The effect was to delay, then unleash their voices into the Haydn, with no soloists to stem the momentum, and timpanist Alonso Mendoza’s drum beaters cracking extra punch. If Zadoc was Angmering’s grand call to Worthing’s attention, the Te Deum was Chorale’s grander jubilation. And as so often with Haydn, he made you wish his music was available to all on the National Health.

Grier had sound projection in mind as well. Giving over the whole stage to his Chorale meant their sound reached the crowd unobstructed by the orchestra, who he spread out across the Assembly Hall floor before the audience – as he’d done last year with Mozart’s The Magic Flute.

And it’s the sombre timbre of that opera’s trombones which also pervades Mozart’s Requiem. Horns absent, the trombones were abetted by ’the dark cloaked basset horns – who with Racheol Datseris’s solo cello introduced the Recordare (Remember) with poignance, then answered the three trombones to create the consolatory clinching instrumental moment of the Benedictus (Blessed), then cast gravity on the penultimate Requiem section, Agnus Dei (Lamb of God).

Centrally placed, fronting the choir, the guest soloists made pleasing blend. York soprano Alexis Jagger’s tumbling auburn ringlets lending Pre-Raphaelite colour to her monochromatic human surroundings. The Chorale’s six tenors held up well, to maintain the integrity of the fugal and polyphonic singing, and in the dynamic contrasting, all voices brought forth fury in the Dies Irae (Day of Wrath), an elation in the Sanctus (Holy), and a sense of final resignation in the Lacrymosa (Tears and mourning).

We look forward to hearing this choir re-grow in expressive range across their concert-giving that’s in store under their new director. See their next concert listing below, and Dominic Grier talking about conducting.

Richard Amey

Angmering Chorale rehearse at Angmering Community Centre in Foxwood Avenue on term-time Thursday evenings. Contact [email protected] for more info.

Listen to Mozart’s original Andante movement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqSsorVKE3I

MUSICAL EVENTS NEXT SEASON

Wednesday 17 September – Free Music Talk-Discussion at Rustington Museum (2pm): ‘Conducting – Inside Out’: Dominic Grier with journalist Richard Amey.

Sunday 28 September – ‘Sounds of Shakespeare’ at Worthing Assembly Hall (3pm): Worthing Philharmonic Orchestra with actors of Rainbow Theatre . Shakespearean scenes with music by Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Verdi, Walton, Prokofiev, Sibelius, Nikolai. Music director Dominic Grier, stage director Nicholas Young.

Sunday 5 October – ‘French Fantasies’: Worthing Symphony Orchestra at Assembly Hall (2.45), conductor John Gibbons. Arnold, Serenade; Debussy, Prelude de la Midi d’un Faun; Rautavaara, Deux Serenades (violin Johan Dalene) Vaughan Williams, overture The Wasps; Debussy, Clair de Lune; Ravel, Tzigane (Dalene); Ravel, suite Mother Goose.

Sunday 2 November – International Interview Concert at St Symphorian’s Durrington Hill (2.45): Haime Duo, BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artistes: sisters Riya (cello) and Berniya (piano). Sonatas by Chopin and Rachmaninov and three special other pieces, plus conversations and questions.

Saturday 8 November – Angmering Chorale at St Margaret’s Church, Angmering (7.30), music director Dominic Grier: to include Schubert’s Mass in G; Vivaldi’s Gloria.

Saturday 8 November – Worthing Choral Society at St George’s Church, Worthing (7.30), conductors Aedan Kerney, Sam Barton: to include Cecilia McDowall piece; Bob Chilcott, Christmas Oratorio.

Sunday 9 November – ‘Unexpected Allies’: Worthing Symphony Orchestra at Assembly Hall (2.45), conductor John Gibbons. Goodwin, 633 Squadron, John Williams, Hymn To The Fallen (from Saving Private Ryan); Lloyd, Symphony No 9; Coates, Dam Busters March; Shostakovich, Symphony No 5.

Saturday 15 November – The Boundstone Chorus at St Michael and All Angels Church, Lancing (7.30), conductors Aedan Kerney, Mattea Leow: to include Vivaldi Gloria; Gjeilo, Sunrise Mass.

Sunday 23 November – ‘Brahms and Beyond’: Worthing Philharmonic Orchestra at Worthing Assembly Hall (3): musical director Dominic Grier, leader Rebecca Bell, solo violin Charlotte Spruit; Ansel Chaloner-Hughes, new work, Brahms, Violin Concerto, Prokofiev, Symphony No 5.