ORA Singers: A Choral Fantasia, Three Choirs Festival, Gloucester Cathedral, Wednesday 26 July, 2023.

4****: David Gray & Paul Gray

This was an evening of music from the Golden Age of English choral music, and newer music that builds on, and pays respect to, that venerable tradition. So we had lush examples of Tallis and Byrd , mixed in with music by modern composers that directly references the output of those earlier composers. The traditional viewed through a contemporary prism.

The concert drew on the expanded resources available, two choirs, The ORA Singers and the larger Oriel Singers to bring a wide range of choral textures to bear. The space of the Cathedral was also used to create acoustic variety and interest. It was, in these respects, well thought-out as a sonic and spatial event.

The concert had two real highlights: a chance to hear Tallis’ massive forty-part motet Spem in alium; and a choral arrangement of Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis.

Due to logistical considerations and the challenges posed by the work, one does not often get the chance to hear Tallis’ motet. The two choirs created a bold and impressive sound and brought presence and gravitas to the piece’s big homophonic structural down beats. The opening felt a little rocky, but things became more secure as the work progressed to a thrilling climax.

There seems to have developed something of a fashion for choral settings of famous orchestral pieces. Barber’s Adagio and Elgar’s Nimrod have both been given the choral treatment and work very well. Greg Murray’s arrangement employed two antiphonal choirs and a quartet of soloists and placed on the singers significant demands in terms of vocal range. It was effective enough on its own terms but lacked the dreamy, lush, bucolic quality that so strongly characterises the original string version.

Elsewhere in the evening, Byrd’s extended, eight-part motet, Ad Dominum cum Tribularer, dazzled with its complexity, while his Rorate Caeli, given an intimate performance by a handful of singers at the end of the nave, was sung with an engaging sensitivity.

Roxanna Panufnik and Roderick Williams both used material from Byrd as a starting point for, respectively, Kyrie after Byrd, and Ave Verum Corpus Reimagined. These were both intriguing and haunting compositions that gave their source material an imaginative and unexpected treatment.

Throughout the evening the choral sound was beautiful, well balanced and floated out into an acoustic that was created for this kind of music. Quite heavenly.

ORA Singers

Oriel Singers

Suzi Digby - Conductor

William Byrd – Ave verum corpus

Plainchant – Spem in Alium

Thomas Tallis – Spem in Alium

William Byrd – Ad Dominum cum tribularer

Roxanna Panufnik- Kyrie after Byrd

Thomas Tallis – Why fum’th in fight

Ralph Vaughan Williams – Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (arr. Greg Murray)

William Byrd – Rorate Caeli

James MacMillan – Lux aeterna

Hildegard of Bingen – O viridissima virga

Janet Wheeler – Allelulia, I heard a voice

Roderick Williams – Ave Verum Corpus Re-imagined

Plainchant – Spem in Alium

Ralph Vaughan Williams – Rest