Spring Concert, 2025

St JAMES SCOTTISH EPISCOPAL CHURCH

The Stonehaven Chorus, Conductor Ralph Jamieson

PROGRAMME:

Wolfgang A. Mozart (1756 – 1791)

Coronation Mass (Krönungsmesse) in C Major K 317

Antonin Dvořák (1841 – 1904)

Oratorio Saint Ludmila A selection of movements arranged by Ralph Jamieson for Chorus and four Soloists with Organ, Brass Ensemble, Timpani and Piano.

REVIEW:

One particular attraction of concerts given by the Stonehaven Chorus, looking back to the days when Dr John Hearne was musical director, was the opportunity which they regularly afforded to audiences of hearing fine music that was more than a bit unusual, music that you would not hear anywhere else. I was delighted that their current conductor and musical director Ralph Jamieson was continuing with that bold tradition. The second part of Sunday’s Spring Concert was a performance of a selection of movements from Antonin Dvořák’s Svatá Ludmila op. 71 his Oratorio Saint Ludmila (1886).

This work, although featuring important sections for the four excellent vocal soloists, mostly though not all, accompanied by Blair Cargill on a Roland electric piano, had equally fulsome expressive pictorial sections for the Stonehaven chorus. They were singing on top of their form on Sunday. They seemed to be really enjoying the music. I will come back in detail to the performance of Dvořák’s music but, before that, let me consider the other fascinating work with which they opened Sunday’s Concert. This was Mozart’s Coronation Mass in C Major, K 317. For this work Ralph Jamieson used the same small orchestral ensemble which he had chosen for the Dvořák. It worked remarkably well. There were no strings, but such requirements were filled in by the organ of St James Church, played brilliantly by Gordon Cree using a multiplicity of organ colours. Mozart used brass in the full score. On Sunday, the trumpets chimed out splendidly several times in the Mozart. In the Gloria for instance. The timpanist also had a crucial role in the Mozart.

However it was the chorus and soloists that made this work shine so magnificently on Sunday. At the opening of the Mass, the choir burst forth with full rich vocal strength in the Kyrie. Soprano soloist Moira Docherty took over stunningly, soon to be joined in a delicious duet with tenor Christian Schneeberger. Then it was back to the chorus with varied dynamics that delivered the full impact of the music. The chorus opened the Gloria, alternating with the finely balanced quartet of soloists.

Mozart does not dilly dally in his setting of the mass as some composers tend to do. Organ, brass and timpani launched the credo. The choir took to it with a will. There was a fine moment from the sopranos of the choir before the quartet of soloists took the Et incarnatus est. The Crucifixus was surprisingly quiet before the brass underlined the Et resurrexit. Towards the end of the Credo the trumpets rejoiced in et expecto resurrectionem leading to the Amen.

The choir rejoiced in the Sanctus with a splendid crescendo passage in the Osanna in excelsis.

The four soloists blended deliciously in the Benedictus, often as here, a highlight of the mass.

Moira Docherty had a starring role in the Agnus Dei. What lovely fluent, floating singing! Then the full quartet came together before the choir entered with splendid weighty singing and the Mass, only half an hour long, ended with the words dona nobis pacem.

Dvořák’s Saint Ludmila tells the story of Ludmila a Bohemian noblewoman living in a land were the people worship a number of pagan Gods and Goddesses with names like Bába, Triglav or Perun. The chorus describe the night turning to day and Winter turning to Spring. It was interesting to hear how basses changed to tenors then the altos were added and finally the sopranos. They took over when Blossoms, born of teeming Springtime. It was fascinating to hear the way in which the Stonehaven Chorus captured Dvořák’s use of the voices almost like sections of orchestral instruments giving the music extra shades of vocal colour. The organ along with brass and timpani in the choral sections of the work sounded like much more than they actually were. There were moments where they had a punch almost like a full symphony orchestra.

The solo voices, like Ludmila, sung more than magnificently by Moira Docherty, were accompanied on Roland piano by Blair Cargill. I was amazed by how much variety of colour he was able to draw from the piano especially in Moira’s first solo How wildly beats my heart within my breast.

All the soloists sang splendidly, Tenor Christian Schneeberger was both A Peasant and Bořivoj who eventually is baptised and marries Ludmila. Baritone Christopher Nairne sang smoothly and with warmth. Mezzo-soprano Hannah Bennett as Svatava had both convincing vocal strength and creamy smoothness of tone. There were two sections where the quartet of soloists came together. They did so most splendidly in the hymn Mighty Lord, to us be gracious. They were joined by the chorus and all the instrumentalists in a rousing and celebratory conclusion to a fascinating work which although listed as an oratorio had something of both the dramatic power and story telling of an opera.

ALAN COOPER