Laudibus in sanctions (Byrd)
Loquebantur variis linguis (Tallis)
Hymn to St Cecilia (Britten)
Ein Deutsches Requiem, version with piano four hands accompaniment (Brahms)
The Choir of King’s College (Cambridge)
Louise Kwong (Soprano solo)
Loquebantur variis linguis (Tallis)
Hymn to St Cecilia (Britten)
Ein Deutsches Requiem, version with piano four hands accompaniment (Brahms)
The Choir of King’s College (Cambridge)
Louise Kwong (Soprano solo)
Hugo Herman-Wilson (Baritone solo)
King's revisit of Hong Kong this time gave a shockingly disappointing performance and did not live up to its reputation. Although one should not dampen the spirit and confidence of young aspiring choristers with strong criticism, any excuse could not hide the fact that the choir has some fundamental problems in singing technique, blending, ensembleship and even the musical leadership. The programme of the first half struck a right balance with the Brahms Requiem later. It began with Byrd's outward jubilant god praising psalm 150, followed by Tallis vesperal response for Pentecost to celebrate the descent of holy spirit upon the apostles, then Britten's intimate and inward praying of St Cecilia, patron saint of music, before a personal dealing of grief and death in the non liturgical requiem.
Basses delivered confident singing with support in the Byrd and voices blended well, but trebles were feeble and lacked presence. Poor intonation throughout and sluggish in tempo. The upper voice parts sung in variety of pitches and all over the place. Generally failed to craft the structure of the piece neither any sense of sectional dialogue. The beginning of the Tallis was chaotic and coordination problems happened among choir. There was no direction in the singing and structurally shapeless. It was alike showering with notes but no communication among parts. Cleobury's conducting did not indicate phrasing but rhythmic counting only. Trebles remained very breathy in their timbre and underwhelming in vocal projection. The men's chanting had the right flow with words and more unified in diction.
Shaky start with pitch problems in the first few notes of the Britten and vowels were not homogeneous. A rather vertical reading of the score and strangely, alike the trebles, the tenors and altos sounded thin and lacked presence in projection. Diction in the second section was poor and trebles struggled with intonation. Again the singing lacked direction and rushing through the text without singing the full value of notes. It neither manage to build up the momentum and crescendo for the climax. The treble solo did not possess a radiant tone and timid in projection. Towards the end tempo gradually became sluggish again, and part solos failed to deliver some quality individual singing and technically insecure.
The piano solo opening of the requiem would probably need more urgency than being steady. The choir entry did not deliver the body of sound and trebles remained timid in their singing. Although arguably a collegiate choir differed from large choral groups with a leaner and lighter sound texture, vocal projection was problematic here that far from filling the hall. Tenors' timbre were noticeably not complimenting each other and did not blend with rest of the choir. Intonation improved in the second movement 'Denn alles Fleisch ist wie Gras' and the choir found itsfeet here. Though the body of sound still failed to make an impact and individual voices sticking out. Their diction in German was presentable but slightly wet for my taste. Energy and direction did not always sustain in the fugue, and far from building the exuberant climatic calling for eternal joy over sorrow.
Beautiful singing from the baritone solo and gave a poetic reading of the third movement 'Herr, lehre doch mich', but tenors simply could not blend together in their singing. Intonation towards the end of the movement gradually worsened as the vocal range went up. Everything went downhill from the fourth movement onward. The better known fourth movement 'Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen' sounded very dull here and also lazy in diction, which affected the tuning. The score reading was vertical again and the choir not singing through the line. Cleobury might have assumed the music would speak for itself, but that would require him to signal the phrasing than being economical and vague in his conducting.
Despite one would prefer a lyric soprano than dramatic one, Louise Kwong gave the best live account of the fifth movement 'Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit' I had encountered in live so far. The part tessitura was vocally demanding for the soloist to sing rather high with only a short build up from mid range. She was secured with intonation and delivered the desired projection, though slightly forceful to nail the top notes and rather muddy in diction. The choir also began to sound tired and sometimes fraction behind the piano playing, which later turned into one chasing the another. The focus and energy faded as the sixth movement went on. The judgement day passage was not dramatically realised by the singing and trebles were flat at the cry of death. The fugue conclusion was chaotic with poor intonation and choppy singing. Tenors were not confident in their entry and inaccurate with notes. The choir again failed to blend together nor manage to maintain the momentum.
One suspect the choir did not prepare well enough to familiarise itself with the music in the end. Diction was completely out of the window at the supposed emotional last movement 'Selig sind die Toten', and neither the singing was radiant nor memorable. Trebles struggled with intonation throughout and as a whole it failed to make any impression. It did not work when the vocal colour remained bright only throughout, but lacked differentiation and musical shape. Words failed me to conclude how unconvincing this performance went, and the tickets were overpriced judging by the poor artistic quality being given, except the two soloists redeemed it from further disaster.
Stephen Cleobury (Conductor)
Basses delivered confident singing with support in the Byrd and voices blended well, but trebles were feeble and lacked presence. Poor intonation throughout and sluggish in tempo. The upper voice parts sung in variety of pitches and all over the place. Generally failed to craft the structure of the piece neither any sense of sectional dialogue. The beginning of the Tallis was chaotic and coordination problems happened among choir. There was no direction in the singing and structurally shapeless. It was alike showering with notes but no communication among parts. Cleobury's conducting did not indicate phrasing but rhythmic counting only. Trebles remained very breathy in their timbre and underwhelming in vocal projection. The men's chanting had the right flow with words and more unified in diction.
Shaky start with pitch problems in the first few notes of the Britten and vowels were not homogeneous. A rather vertical reading of the score and strangely, alike the trebles, the tenors and altos sounded thin and lacked presence in projection. Diction in the second section was poor and trebles struggled with intonation. Again the singing lacked direction and rushing through the text without singing the full value of notes. It neither manage to build up the momentum and crescendo for the climax. The treble solo did not possess a radiant tone and timid in projection. Towards the end tempo gradually became sluggish again, and part solos failed to deliver some quality individual singing and technically insecure.
The piano solo opening of the requiem would probably need more urgency than being steady. The choir entry did not deliver the body of sound and trebles remained timid in their singing. Although arguably a collegiate choir differed from large choral groups with a leaner and lighter sound texture, vocal projection was problematic here that far from filling the hall. Tenors' timbre were noticeably not complimenting each other and did not blend with rest of the choir. Intonation improved in the second movement 'Denn alles Fleisch ist wie Gras' and the choir found itsfeet here. Though the body of sound still failed to make an impact and individual voices sticking out. Their diction in German was presentable but slightly wet for my taste. Energy and direction did not always sustain in the fugue, and far from building the exuberant climatic calling for eternal joy over sorrow.
Beautiful singing from the baritone solo and gave a poetic reading of the third movement 'Herr, lehre doch mich', but tenors simply could not blend together in their singing. Intonation towards the end of the movement gradually worsened as the vocal range went up. Everything went downhill from the fourth movement onward. The better known fourth movement 'Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen' sounded very dull here and also lazy in diction, which affected the tuning. The score reading was vertical again and the choir not singing through the line. Cleobury might have assumed the music would speak for itself, but that would require him to signal the phrasing than being economical and vague in his conducting.
Despite one would prefer a lyric soprano than dramatic one, Louise Kwong gave the best live account of the fifth movement 'Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit' I had encountered in live so far. The part tessitura was vocally demanding for the soloist to sing rather high with only a short build up from mid range. She was secured with intonation and delivered the desired projection, though slightly forceful to nail the top notes and rather muddy in diction. The choir also began to sound tired and sometimes fraction behind the piano playing, which later turned into one chasing the another. The focus and energy faded as the sixth movement went on. The judgement day passage was not dramatically realised by the singing and trebles were flat at the cry of death. The fugue conclusion was chaotic with poor intonation and choppy singing. Tenors were not confident in their entry and inaccurate with notes. The choir again failed to blend together nor manage to maintain the momentum.
One suspect the choir did not prepare well enough to familiarise itself with the music in the end. Diction was completely out of the window at the supposed emotional last movement 'Selig sind die Toten', and neither the singing was radiant nor memorable. Trebles struggled with intonation throughout and as a whole it failed to make any impression. It did not work when the vocal colour remained bright only throughout, but lacked differentiation and musical shape. Words failed me to conclude how unconvincing this performance went, and the tickets were overpriced judging by the poor artistic quality being given, except the two soloists redeemed it from further disaster.
The choir of Kings', Cambridge, delivered a concert that I will remember for a long time. The blend was excellent, and the young trebles rendered all of the darkness and light that Brahms' brooding and reserved masterwork called for. Bases were indeed strong , but they never dominated the texture. The piano duet playing was outstanding to the extent that I never once missed the absent orchestral parts. Intonation was generally absolutely fine, as was diction, especially in German. The restrained and precise, but passionate leadership of Stephen Cleobury, one of the world's most highly regarded choral directors, always kept the music itself centre stage. It has been said that, to an extent, choral directors 'play the building' and one star of the show yet to be mentioned is the exquisite acoustic of the hall. The surroundings afforded an intensity of sound and an intimacy that belied the hall's considerable scale. Next time kings' comes to town, Hong Kong, you will not regret listening to this advice: GO, listen and experience something that will leave you enriched for a very long time afterwards. John Wright, MA (Cantab. - Music), M.Mus (London), Director of Music, The British School of Guangzhou.
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