Sydney Reviews

The program informed me that the first choir formed at St James’ Church included convicts. I suppose there must be some other church choirs in Sydney with such a long history, but few have built on it to the extent that the choir of St James’ has. Especially in the last decades, they have consolidated a reputation as one of the premier choirs in Sydney. And in their current director, Warren Trevelyan-Jones, they have a man ideally suited to expand this reputation.

The concert began with Bach’s Mass in A, which I had never heard. To those familiar with the B Minor Mass, and that would include almost all of the audience, this music came as a surprise. Written only a little earlier than the familiar colossus, this mass, which only has a Kyrie and Gloria, is exuberant, light-hearted, and terse, particularly in the choral sections. The Christe is a recitative for four soloists, a formula Bach used near the end of the Matthew Passion among other places, and the Gloria included three arias, in one of which the soprano soloist is accompanied by two flutes and upper strings but no continuo.

It was sung with great verve and expressive variety, with that excellent blend that comes from a choir singing services every week combined with astute and sympathetic direction. Soloists here, and later in the concert, came from within the choir’s forces, and included about half of their 18 voices. As usual in such cases, the soloists (unidentified in the program) were a little uneven in quality, but this was more than made up for by the fact that they sound, naturally, just like the choir and not like superposed soloists. Their sounds were uniformly pure, although clear diction is hard in the moderately resonant acoustic of that church.

An even rarer piece followed. This was Der Gerechte kommt um, a five-voice a capella motet by Johann Kuhnau, arranged for strings and oboes (played here by flutes), and given a new text, by Bach. It was an exploration of chromatic harmony and suspensions of the kind that so often brought out the best in 17th century composers. The music reminded me more of Schein, and sometimes even Purcell, than Bach, although once a shadow of the Crucifixus from the B Minor Mass flitted across the sound-world. Here the choir showed another, deeply expressive, capability, milking the dissonances for all they were worth. Putting this after the Mass was good programming, an aspect of the St James’ concerts that Trevelyan-Jones takes very seriously.

Then after the interval, came a familiar and very exciting work, Handel’s Dixit Dominus. The soprano who sang the solo aria and the duet in this work was outstanding, and the choir became more and more vigorous and incisive as the work went on. The staccatissimo Conquesabit section was only one of many impressive moments where the virtuosity of the choir was on display in this notoriously acrobatic piece. But gosh, what brilliant choral writing it is! I would go so far as to say that the last chorus has no equal even in Messiah.

The orchestra, playing period instruments, was a delight from start to finish. The Bach Mass included flute obbligatos from Melissa Farrow and Megan Lang, and Alice Evans’ wonderful violin obbligato, all played with melting sensitivity. Alistair Nelson managed to play a Roland organ so well that I would have taken it for a real organ. For my own taste, I would have preferred less doubling by bass of the continuo line, in some of the solo sections, but that is a tiny cavil. Although nowadays baroque style is so well understood that players playing modern instruments can simulate it perfectly well, this performance reminded me (as do those by Pinchgut Opera) of the exquisite pleasure of hearing top players play period instruments.

Altogether a gem of a baroque concert.


The Choir and Orchestra of St James’
Songs of the Divine: Baroque Masterpieces

Director Warren Trevelyan-Jones

Venue: St James’ Church | 173 King Street, Sydney
Date: Saturday 22 March 2014
Time: 5:00pm
Tickets: $50 – $45
Bookings: (02) 8256 2222 | www.cityrecitalhall.com