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Carmina Burana<\/em><\/p>\n Sydney Chamber Choir, \u00a0NSW Public Schools Senior Singers<\/em><\/p>\n Wei Jiang, Megan Cronin, Belinda Montgomery \u2013 sopranos\/\u00a0Miguel Iglesias \u2013 tenor\/\u00a0Alexander Knight \u2013 baritone<\/em><\/p>\n Splash Percussion\/ \u00a0<\/em>Chris Cartner and Katherine Day \u2013 pianos<\/em><\/p>\n Richard Gill \u2013 conductor\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Saturday, 19 March, 2016<\/em><\/p>\n City Recital Hall, Sydney<\/em><\/p>\n In recent years the reach of the Sydney Chamber Choir\u2019s annual concert series has become increasingly ambitious. Having earlier in its history tended to perform in smaller venues it has lately begun to give at least one concert each year in the City Recital Hall and, in 2016, all three of its regular concerts will be at the Angel Place venue.<\/p>\n For its first outing of the year Carl Orff\u2019s perennial favourite Carmina Burana<\/em> was the guarantor of audience interest, and in this respect it was cleverly paired with a work many listeners would likely not have otherwise encountered: the fourteenth-century Messe de Notre Dame<\/em> by Guillaume de Machaut. In keeping with the explicit mathematical fascinations of composers at that time, the work features some fantastically intricate rhythms, but the choir\u2019s interpretation was light and precise throughout.<\/p>\n Interpolated into, and responding to the Mass, were short Marian motets by three young Sydney composers. The first piece, by Michael Paton, was for three male voices; the second, a sinuous setting for two female voices, was by Olivia Swift. The last \u2013 by Josephine Gibson, a member of the choir \u2013 was a single line of deceptive simplicity and great interest, sung by the entire ensemble.<\/p>\n In the second half of the concert, the Sydney Chamber Choir was joined by a youth choir, baritone soloist, two pianists and percussionists. The range of Carmina Burana<\/em>\u2019s orchestral colour is lessened somewhat in this instrumentally \u2018lighter\u2019 version but, in their favour, these forces were a good match for both the size of the venue and for the choir. Their combined performance was disciplined and exciting: the enlarged choir was very technically tight; the tenor and three soprano soloists, drawn from its ranks, an indication of Sydney Chamber Choir\u2019s musical depth. Baritone Alexander Knight was hugely engaging as he revelled in the drama of his various roles.<\/p>\n Given his long history in music education, Richard Gill\u2019s choice of the NSW Public Schools Senior Singers and University of Sydney ensemble Splash Percussion for this concert was doubtless quite deliberate. Just prior to the performance of Carmina Burana<\/em> Gill commented from the stage that his inclusion of the schools\u2019 choir was partially to demonstrate that one only need be \u2018warm and vertical\u2019 to sing, that performance is \u2018not just for the gifted\u2019. While such democratic intent is to be applauded \u2013 in an age of specialisation and professionalisation music is, for most people, a passive rather than active interest \u2013 these statements are, of course, not entirely true. For any of the singers (or instrumentalists, for that matter) to have simply been \u2018present\u2019 would have been an injustice to the repertoire; instead, there was rather more of the \u2018gifted\u2019 on display in this very varied evening of music-making.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Michelle Imison<\/em><\/p>\n Michelle Imison likes to sing and to talk, write about and organise choral music.\u00a0While studying at the University of Sydney she sang with both the Sydney University Musical and Madrigal Societies and, with these two groups, helped to plan concerts, stage productions and festivals. She has also previously had the opportunity to take part in Tallis Scholars Summer Schools in Australia, the US and the UK. When not now travelling the world in her career as an international development consultant, she finds an important part of her grounding in Sydney as a member of (and publicity officer for) the Choir of Christ Church St Laurence at Railway Square, where she is able to give free rein to her interest in early music. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Carmina Burana Sydney Chamber Choir, \u00a0NSW Public Schools Senior Singers Wei Jiang, Megan Cronin, Belinda Montgomery \u2013 sopranos\/\u00a0Miguel Iglesias \u2013 tenor\/\u00a0Alexander Knight…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20677,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"sls_format":[],"class_list":["post-20667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews"],"acf":{"deck":"","is_featured":false,"media_type":"standard","audio_embed":"","video_url":""},"yoast_head":"\n