Alan Cooper has provided the following review of the recent "Hey for Christmas" concert, which took place on Monday 27th November 2023.
Monday’s concert in King’s College Chapel was the most singular concert of music for Christmas I have ever experienced. There were carols, yes, but not the usual ones, Away in a Manger or The Twelve Days of Christmas. Something far more special. From an earlier age, certainly, but for us today, wonderfully refreshing. The programme note asked us to imagine we had arrived at our relatives for Christmas at their house in London, at some point in the mid-seventeenth century. They had twelve days of revelry lined up with feasting, but more importantly lots of wonderful music.
We were to hear performances by the four singers of Siglo de Oro, five voices if you included the Director of the ensemble Patrick Allies who several times added his rich bass tones to the music. Siglo de Oro, despite the name which probably refers to the Golden Age of art, literature and music in Spain, are one of the leading British vocal ensembles today, something they richly proved and then some on Monday.
They were joined by three of the instrumentalists of the Spinacino Consort, a Scottish based early music ensemble dedicated to re-imagining the music of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in passionate and engaging performances, and that indeed they did! Spinacino in Italian can mean spinach and on the front of the programme, on either side of their name, were little bunches of spinach. However I reckon that their name comes from Francesco Spinacino (b. 1485) who was an Italian lutenist and composer.
Monday’s programme offered a splendid mix of dance music, folk song, and carols, all well known at the time, but new and marvellously refreshing for us to hear. Professor Phillip Cooke (b. 1980) had also gifted a new Christmas piece, Hodie Christus Natus Est, receiving its premiere performance on Monday. It was great fun, with clapping hands and percussion including Aaron McGregor using a microphone case as a little drum. We were informed that this sound should have been stamping feet, but with the carpeted cement floor of the Chapel, feet would have made no sound at all. There was something about this piece that suggested a marriage between joyful early music and modern choral writing. It sat well alongside the other pieces in the programme.
It was the three players of Spinacino, violin, theorbo and viol that launched the concert with the splendidly named dance tune Granny’s Delight, collected and published by John Playford (1623 – 86). The violin played with gusto by Aaron McGregor held the tune. There were other instrumental pieces in the programme. The Earl of Essex Galliard a merry, energetic court dance had Eric Thomas exchanging lute for theorbo. His energetic playing certainly added to the rhythmic jollity of the piece. Paul’s Wharf collected by Playford with variations by Giles Farnaby (1563 – 1640) for virginals and arranged by Spinacino for violin theorbo and viol was splendid. Does not the word variations suggest variety. This was certainly true of Monday’s jovial performance. In contrast, another Playford piece, The Beggar Boy for violin lute and viol had a touch of sadness to it. I was reminded of Hans Andersen’s sad story of The Little Match Girl. Our spirits were lifted once again by Playford with A Wassail Tune.
A great selection of instrumental music, but was it not for the singing that we had really come and in that, we were royally served by Siglo de Oro both with ensembles and solos. The carol As I Rode Out This Endere Night from the world of the Mystery Play was sung by a trio of voices, alto Rebekah Jones, tenor Chris Fitzgerald-Lombard and bass Ben Rowarth. It was delightful. Thomas Ravenscroft’s Remember, O Thou Man had five voices including Patrick Allies and the instrumental trio with lute. It had several magnificent solos along with its rich ensemble singing.
Soprano Hannah Ely enchanted us with the dreamy Irish melody The Darkest Night in December. Its easy flowing melismatic decorations to the melody were a delight.
Sweet Was The Song the Virgin Sang was an exquisite setting for vocal quartet very different from In Winter Cold, the ancient fable set by William Byrd (c. 1540 – 1623). It was sung by a trio of tenor, soprano and alto. It is a story famed across Europe. I am familiar with the version by La Fontaine which was set to music by Charles Trenet. It is on the b side of La Mer. Alto Rebekah Jones, with just lute, gave us a lovely performance of The Truth from Above. Music students will surely be familiar with the setting by Vaughan Williams? The male voices, tenor and two basses sounded magnificent in Sir Christmas (Nowell, Nowell), contrasted nicely by the quartet supported by just theorbo and viol in Upon My Lap My Soveraigne Sits a vision of baby Jesus found nowhere else, I think. The Student singers joined Siglo de Oro in a joyful rendition for fourteen voices in Drive the Cold Winter Away. At its heart were delectable duets by Hannah Ely and Rebekah Jones.
Well, there was one feature of the Christmas concert that so far we had not experienced. It was to come in the, dare I say, riotous finale, Hey for Christmas! We were asked to join in the chorus which even had one slightly naughty word. Oh! What fun! At least it was not The Twelve Days of Christmas which, these days, at my advanced age, has become just a bit too much.