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Irish Examiner
By Declan Townsend
Tuesday, May 6th, 2008
Chorus: The Cork International Choral Festival once again delivered top-class singing
For the Cork International Choral Festival director John Fitzpatrick, his small full-time staff, and his army of volunteers, who perform an annual miracle of organisation, the opening concert last Wednesday night must have come as a relief.
For the 54th time, Cork City Hall was once again abuzz with excitement as Lt. Brian Prendergast conducted the excellent Band of the First Southern Brigade in a pre-concert recital.
Fitzpatrick has continually sought out, and brought to Cork, international artists who bring new perspectives to ensemble singing.
This year’s festival, for example, showcased Touché, a 15-voice vocal jazz ensemble from Denmark in the opening gala concert. Remarkably gifted (they even created string bass, percussion, trumpet and trombone sounds with their voices), their programme, however, lacked sufficient variety to sustain interest.
The items that most grabbed my interest were the Sinatra/Count Basie Fly Me To the Moon, A Cappella in Acapulco (brilliant samba), and Sammy Kahn’s End of a Beautiful Friendship.
In contrast, the one-hour, free, afternoon recital of sacred music by Cant’ella, a German ladies’ choir, in Honan Chapel at UCC was full of variety-particularly memorable were the extracts from the Mass by Carl Bertil Agnestig.
The stars of Thursday night’s gala concert were musica intima from Canada, whose uninhibited, natural sound, superb choral discipline and extraordinary varied programme was a joy to hear. They provided one of the most moving experiences of the festival, with Arvo Part’s setting of the Magnificat. Unlike the normal, joyous treatment of St. Luke’s text, Part’s Virgin Mary is an awestruck, innocent little girl received in very still, magical music.
On Friday night, Music in the Cathedrals brought the National Chamber Choir to St. Fin Barre’s and Amarcord to the North Cathedral. In the latter (five ex-choristers from St. Thomas Kirke in Leipzig), Fitzpatrick has discovered another vocal jewel. The audience sat in spellbound silence for more than an hour before cheering (in church) a group of singers, the bulk of whose programme comprised Gregorian chant and music written before 1550.
This was stunning singing, almost overpowering in its perfection, whether they were performing music by Hildegard of Bingen (d.1179) or John Tavener, who is still alive, or anything in between. This was perfection.
Earlier in the evening, the National Chamber Choir effectively juxtaposed
music from the 16th and 20th centuries, including world premieres of two
works commissioned by the festival. Vocal problems in the soprano line marred
performances of the earlier pieces. Howerever, when it came ot Goercki’s
(b1933) deceptively simple, wonderfully effective Totus Exurgat Deus, we
heard singing of truly professional, international calibre.
The two commissioned works, The Kiss (poem by Ulick O’Connor, music
by Rhona Clarke, b1958) and The Spring (text from the 12th century Acallam
na Senorach, music by Tarik O’Regan, b1978) were subjects of excellent,
well-attended seminars at the Cork School of Music Saturday.