CHURCH TIMES, 1 November 2024
Garry
Humphreys joins a commemoration of Wolsey in Aldeburgh
THE 550th-anniversary celebration of the birth of Thomas Wolsey
began in Ipswich — in Wolsey’s home county of Suffolk — in March 2023 and was
planned to last a total of 550 days, comprising many events: exhibitions,
tours, walks, as well as activities involving local schools.
As this project draws to a close, there was an opportunity to hear
in concert local composer Ben Parry’s specially commissioned Wolsey
Mass, in a performance by two choirs from establishments with
Wolsey associations: the Church of St Mary le Tower (the civic church of
Ipswich, soon to be Ipswich Minster, where Wolsey is said to have attended
school in the north transept) and the Chapel Royal, Hampton Court Palace
(Wolsey’s creation, from more humble beginnings as an “ordinary country house”),
under their respective directors of music, Christopher Borrett and Carl
Jackson.
The concert — bearing the overall title “Until I see Thee as Thou
art” — was held in the Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh, the principal venue of the
Aldeburgh Festival, with its Britten-Pears connections, until the building of
the Snape Maltings. It is a venue as unlike an ecclesiastical building as one
could imagine, satisfactory for Vivaldi’s popular Gloria, which ended
the programme, but perhaps more challenging for the earlier works in the first
half, such as Byrd’s Ave verum corpus and
Tallis’s Salvator
Mundi.
In the event, the performers were unfazed by the venue, and both
choirs were more than a match for each other. The first part was directed by
Carl Jackson — whose conducting emphasises line as well as rhythm — Parry’s Mass being
divided by the Byrd and Tallis works mentioned above.
I would have preferred to hear it as a concert piece, without
interruption, but it certainly made a big impact, sonically very much in the
tradition of Vaughan Williams’s Mass in G minor or Frank Martin’s Mass for
Double Choir. Parry’s experience as a singer as well as a choir director and
composer was very much in evidence. He understands voices.
Unfortunately, I have been unable to see a copy
of the score, but, as the excellent programme notes pointed out, the idea of
pairing parts — trebles with tenors, altos with basses — and the staggering and
layering of entries building up to powerful climaxes are characteristic
features of this attractive piece. Here, as elsewhere, the Jubilee Hall’s
acoustic lent a vivid clarity to this and to all the pieces. Before the
interval, there was a stupendous performance of Dering’s Factum
est silentium.
After the interval, Christopher Borrett conducted Vivaldi’s Gloria,
so well known that I imagined that there would be little to say about it; but
it turned out to be one of the best performances I have ever heard, Borrett
recognising that a drier acoustic permits brisker tempi. The exciting beginning
— joined by an orchestra comprising string quintet, and one each of oboe,
bassoon, and trumpet, and organ (Carl Jackson) — established the mood for the
rest of the piece.
The solos were taken by members of the choir: superb singing by
unnamed boy trebles of the duet “Laudamus te” and
the solo “Domine
Deus, Rex coelestis” and “Domine Deus, Agnus Dei” and “Qui
sedes” by the Hampton Court countertenor Hamish McLaren — a
voice to watch!