But the key grouch I had was not the poor balance of performance and concert offerings, nor the ridiculously slow tempo of the first offering, the innappropriate casting of a Sarah Brightman vibrato-addled soprano and patchy, amateurish voices, but the shocking diction overall. Do choral directors school their choir members in the art of ‘tongue and teeth’ and nice sharp attacks and finishes of words? I don’t think so. Even back in the Melbourne Chorale days I was shocked to find that Val Pyers never once discussed this aspect. Thus, the old complaint about Australian choirs stands: they are as lax and muddy as our native language. Gondwana Voices is another deserving of a rap on the knuckles. Except they are children and charges would be laid.
I couldn’t understand a word, and particularly with the soloists this was evident in their German rendering. Latin is comparatively easy to sing, but this was a flop too. The bass, Adrian Tamburini, has a pleasant voice but appears to swallow each word for dramatic effect, something that increased the drag element of ‘Ich Habe Genug’ which, in the hands of a more mature singer, rocks along with something of a bounce. The emotion within is typical Christian peasant world-denying crap as is also that in the words of the Magnificat and the servile Mass adds to this. By the end of the night, one wants to donate all worldly goods to the hungry and poor and jump off a cliff. The programming, therefore, and note that the RMP now spells ‘programme’ as ‘program’ hitherto used for computer lingo, cancelled out itself in its intensity.
Louise Hunter Bradley, doubling on recorder and voice, had the worst end of the deal as she could scarcely be heard in either role. The layout of choir and orchestra was a little too salon-ish for my ears and I couldn’t work out why, as the hall organ wasn’t being used, the original choir stalls further back couldn’t accommodate the choir. Arrange the players front and centre and the singers perhaps on a small rostrum in front of that small group (which was, in the RMP configuration, quite spread out). The Easter Oratorio’s haunting, pastoral-like recorder/flute and group ping-pong match was completely lost because of poor sound quality and I could tell the soloists were really going for it by their incessant body swaying (something else about which I can gripe).
‘Ich Habe Genug’ is not only demanding for the Bass, but also for the oboist and Anne Gilby made a reasonable fist of it but I wonder whether the slow tempo made it even harder for her to control her air flow? It was hard to see whether the occasional misses were caused by breath or fingering, but I suspect the piece eludes even the best players. The first movement was as slow as a winter’s day and a collective groan went around the cognoscenti in the audience. This perhaps shouldn’t have been placed as the opener as by the end of the first melody, we had ALL had enough.
The Magnificat is a puzzling work as it spreads the words of a female (Mary, as she celebrates her impregnation by praising her sperm donor) across a range of voices, male and female. It is a degrading song of peasant grovel, though Christians revere this as a wonderful prayer of gratitude for being chosen to carry the Saviour. Sorry, I don’t buy that. The world-denying aspect kind of ruins it for me. It is the same old con that white people have carried out on blacks and Asians for centries. Yeah, suffer now suckers and work for peanuts and you will have glory in the next world (when we are not paying for it) and the Magnificat also says that God is good because he will put down the elevated and raise the poor etc. etc.. Sadly, I had time in the RMP concert to ponder these words at length as the lack of energy in the rendition gave me plenty of spare time.
The Easter Oratorio was a bit more satisfying. We repositioned and took seats upstairs, side and front of the balcony which meant that we could hear the soloists far better. Including, alas, the Sarah Brightmanesque, band-saw vibrato of Nicole Wallace. Tobias Cole, Male Alto, rather lost his way in this piece but in the Magificat, he shone with his potentially world-class, unmannered voice. It is rather a lot to expect this amount of singing from soloists in the one night perhaps as they all showed signs of breathiness and exhaustion. Tenor Paul McMahon seems to be in training for a musical and his voice appears to be produced with something like ‘Les Mis’ in mind. Not very Bach-ish at all.
I’m afraid this sort of concert rendition and effect, lack of understanding of the curious, woody acoustic of the Melbourne Town Hall, made me feel very ripped off. The prices were the same as if I had gone to a professional concert.
And please take a few notes, RMP bosses:
1. Discipline your ranks to look the same, to stay motionless and focused while others are playing.
2. Check their clothing.
3. Teach them how to sit neatly.
4. Trim those smelly old beards.
but most of all:
5. Teach them to pronounce the language BEFORE attempting the melody.
6. Don’t allow them to ‘conduct’ from the choir as this was terribly annoying, being way out of synch with Andrew Wailes’ idiosyncratic beating.
7. Get the venue right. MTH was not good.
8. Tell your volunteers what a Premium ticket buys. Explain about the programme in exchange for voucher system.
9. Forget the glossy programme. That’s a waste of money. Your efforts should go elsewhere. More practice on location for instance.
In conclusion, I felt that Bach was severely let down last night by the programming of three works that fought against each other and was too ambitious for such a slack choir. Note also that the lack of volume from such a large group was also a worry. What could have improved the night? With the splendid David Macfarlane and his harpsichord, perhaps some charming short pieces featuring his virtuosity would have balanced a turgid array of forelock tugging to a convenient deity whose mantra seems to be that same old Aussie saw of ‘lop down those tall poppies’ and ‘don’t sweat aobut the condition of this world as the next one will be simply fabulous’ !!
WR 22/6
