Choir of Clare CollegeReview 2005-2006
The Choir has enjoyed an extremely busy and successful year. Since June last year, it has undertaken two substantial tours, given numerous concerts both in the UK and abroad, and recorded three CDs.
On Saturday 16 July 2005 the Choir performed a concert in the Herz-Jesu Kirche, Munich, under the direction of Ivor Bolton. This concert is part of the prestigious Munich Opera Festival; the choir first performed in this festival in 2000, and has been invited back every year since then. The audience is a discerning one, and is very appreciative of the Choir.
On either side of this concert the Choir recorded two CDs: a disc of music by the young composer Tarik O’Regan, whom Tim Brown has commissioned to write works for the Choir, for Collegium, and a disc of John Rutter’s Mass of the Children for Naxos. Other performers on the latter included the Farnham Youth Choir, Jeremy Huw Williams (ex-St John’s) and Angharad Gruffydd Jones (ex-Clare), and various instrumentalists, many of whom were Cambridge alumni. Both CDs have received highly favourable reviews. The Choir performed the Mass of the Children in a concert in King’s on Saturday 23 July.
In September 2005 the Choir undertook a three-week tour of the USA; they performed concerts, services, and workshops in venues in Dallas (TX), Lubbock (TX), Fort Worth (TX ), Hot Springs (AR), Memphis (TN), St Louis (MO), Decatur (IL), St Charles (IL), New York (NY), and New Haven (CT). The tour was well-received and enjoyed by the choir, despite the taxing schedule.
Tim Brown took a sabbatical for the academic year 2005-2006; we were most fortunate to secure Dr Christopher Robinson as acting Director of Music, and the Choir has had a very fruitful year under his direction. James McVinnie, the Senior Organ Scholar, has played a great part in the musical and administrative running of the Choir. At the end of the first week of the Michaelmas Term the Choir performed a concert to mark the sixtieth birthday of John Rutter, which was a very ambitious undertaking so early in the year; the concert was a great success. At the end of October the Choir sang Evensong in Westminster Abbey. The annual Christmas concert included the first part of Handel’s Messiah, and the usual carols in Hall.
In December the Choir took part in an extraordinary tour of Europe with the Freiburger Barockorchester, which is widely acknowledged to be the best baroque ensemble in the world. The conductor was René Jacobs, for whom the Choir performed Handel’s Jephtha in 2002; the programme on this occasion was Handel’s Messiah. Performances were given in Athens, Paris, Brussels, Castellon, Valencia, Milan, Rome, and Freiburg, and the tour ended with a recording of the work for Harmonia Mundi. The concerts were highly praised, and, judging by the enthusiastic response of the audience, the Choir was very well-received indeed. All members of the Choir agreed that the month with this excellent group of musicians was the experience of a life-time.
In the Lent Term the Choir had only two engagements in addition to the usual services: an Evensong and short concert in Leeds Parish Church, which was a highly enjoyable occasion, and the annual joint service with St John’s College Choir. There were no concerts in the Easter Vacation – it was felt that the Choir members needed this time to prepare for their exams, after the rigours of the America and Messiah tours.
There are various projects which will take place at the end of the Easter Term: a concert at 6.00 pm on 22 June in Clare Chapel, conducted by Christopher Robinson, followed by two concerts in Munich on 24 and 25 June (the latter will be conducted by Ivor Bolton). We shall then record a CD with Christopher for Naxos of music by S. S. Wesley in St Michael’s, Tenbury, Worcester; the recording will be preceded by a concert of music related to St Michael’s. The final engagement of the summer will be a brief tour of four concerts in the Tirol, Austria, which will include a performance in the Early Music Festival in Innsbruck (the Choir sang in this festival in 2002, and René Jacobs, the musical director of the festival, was very keen that the Choir return).
This has been a very successful and varied year for the Choir, as the numerous and diverse engagements listed above show.
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