concert .reviews.
Review of Karl Jenkin' 'The Armed Man' as printed in The Scotsman.
We performed with other choirs from across Scotland on the 11th September 2005 at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. This was a
Gala Concert in aid of the Charity 'Hope and Homes for Children'
Conducted bu Karl Jenkins.
Karl Jenkins: The Armed Band
Carla Whalen
There was a real sense of occasion on Sunday evening as a large audience gathered for this charity performance. The concert opened with Jenkins's Passacaglia, which showcased the impeccable ensemble playing of the RSNO strings as well as the notable solo talent of its four principal players. The strings continued to impress in the highly stylised three-movement Palladio.
The Mass for Peace saw five local choirs joined on stage by a full symphony orchestra, soprano Ailish Tynan and Jenkins himself. By setting elements of the Christian mass alongside Muslim and Hindu religious references, as well as Japanese poetry, Jenkins clearly intended this piece to reflect the realities of war and peace in a multicultural society - a very apt sentiment on what was the anniversary of 9/11.
The Following review appeared in The Herald on 14th May 2002.
Liszt's Christus
Albert Hall, Stirling
Conrad Wilson
If there is still such a thing as a neglected masterpiece, Liszt's Christus fills the bill. A quarter of a century ago it formed the sensational climax of the Liszt Festival of London, and was repeated later at an Albert Hall Prom. But it has taken longer to reach Scotland, where it was sung on Sunday in Stirling's rather smaller Albert Hall.
The performance, too, was smaller, though it was boldly, bravely voiced by the Stirling and District Choral Union, celebrating their 50th anniversary, and by the Falkirk Festival Chorus, with whom they had merged for the occasion. The smallness was not so much a matter of sound, which came winging out from the choristers and the Scottish Concert Orchestra under Eric Dunlea's triumphant conductorship, as of duration. Whereas London heard 150 minutes of wide-ranging Liszt, Stirling heard only about 90.
Though Scenes from Christus might have been a better title, the impression of a grand sequence of biblical tableaux was conveyed much as Liszt intended. At times, admittedly, it was somewhat less than an impression. The cuts, particularly in the work's early stages, seemed brutal, yet the centre of gravity was where it belonged - in the Gethsemane scene and the vast Stabat Mater which, along with the Easter postscript, form the third of the oratorio's three parts.
John Mackenzie sang the stark Gethsemane music with eloquence. Eric Dunlea, who had earlier savoured the little flashes of Berlioz, Wagner, and Verdi with which Liszt seasoned the score, sustained the almost Schoenbergian chromaticism of the Stabat Mater to powerful effect. The choral forces, whether with mysterious organ accompaniment or in full cry with the orchestra, were rousing. Joanne Boag, the soprano, was firm and clear. Even in its truncated form, Christus was a work to hear. One more performance, in Falkirk Town Hall on Sunday.