The Guernsey Choral & Orchestral Society: A Feast of Music Concert Review

The Guernsey Choral & Orchestral Society's A Feast of Music (generously sponsored by HSBC Private Bank) was a concert of vivid, emotional music that captured the audience from the first roll of the timpani marking the start of Dvorak's Te Deum. The Te Deum, written in 1892 to mark the 400th anniversary of Columbus's landing in the New World, is a wonderfully evocative work. A sense of Columbus's journey was immediately apparent, as the power of the Orchestra and Choir built wave upon wave of music, giving the audience a feeling of being surrounded by movement, carefully marshalled by conductor Helen Grand. Beyond the mere physicality of the journey one also gained a sense of the joy and trepidation felt by the sailors, as the initial celebratory mood of the Te Deum was undercut with painfully poignant, yearning solos from soprano Helen Groves and baritone Colin Campbell. The choir was key in supporting this, with skilful controlled, tentative, almost ominous singing during the Aeterae fac and Dignare Domine.

Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor came next. This is music the Pied Piper would have played (if he played violin). Soloist Laura Samuel's playing was as delicate and beguiling as a spider floating by on a single thread. Soloist and orchestra moved seamlessly under the direction of Jean Owen, playing a game of call and reply as the central motifs were tossed between them. There came a point when I was no longer sure where the violin stopped and Ms. Samuel began; she was utterly engaged with the music. The standing ovation at the end was much deserved.

The evening drew to a close with William Walton's Belshazzar's Feast. This is a piece that demands an immediate statement of intent from a reviewer; it is not music one can be equivocal about. It was wonderful, magnificent and grandiose! Cinematic in its scope, it had me gripped from the first chilling, and terrifyingly hard, unaccompanied bass and tenor entries. Baritone soloist Colin Campbell returned to the stage to lead us through this biblical tale of shock and awe, with a stern and forceful delivery. The passages describing Belshazzar's Babylon alone would have made this performance memorable. The abrupt phrasing from the choir jostling with spiky, itchy playing from the orchestra not only gave a vivid sense of a proud, bustling city, but also managed to convey a dark mood of contempt from the singers. This sense of drama was carried by the choir throughout the piece; their clear and emotional singing giving meaning to the text. When the spectral hand appeared to give its terminal message there was a clear, musical contrast between the lavish earlier singing of Praise ye the gods of gold and the brief, discordant, line "Thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting".

I was unsure of the concert's title at first. Belshazzar's feast was probably not a party you'd be sorry to miss and I couldn't see how the title applied to the other works. But by the end of the evening it was clear that all the pieces had such presence and emotional impact that it was as satisfying to listen to as working your way through any biblical feast.