BWW Reviews: IN DULCI JUBILO Brightened the Week Before Christmas

Reviewed by Ewart Shaw, Friday December 19 2014

While there is much to be commended and remembered of those reverently performed 'festival of nine lessons and carols' of which King's College Cambridge's annual event is the exemplar, there is much that is positive about the concert that I have just attended, In Dulci Jubilo, by the Corinthian Singers, who decided to add a lot of energy to their concert, short, not sharp, at least in pitch, and shiny as a Christmas tree bauble.

For forty years or so The Corinthian Singers have been the chamber choir that essentially kept the concept of the small, highly skilled vocal ensemble alive in Adelaide, after the demise of the Adelaide Singers. I've been a fan for many years and have, on occasion, sung with them. Their challenge for some time seems to have been to recruit and keep a conductor who can help them maintain and develop their image and their repertoire.

This year, rather than compete with the other choirs for a spot on the St Peter's Cathedral roster, they gave both of their concerts in their home base, St John's Church, in Halifax Street. I attended the second performance. They know the church and its acoustic potential.

There were no readings at all and, bar a brief explanation by guest conductor, Alistair Knight, about the inclusion of the Howells canticles, the Magnificat, and Nunc Dimittis, no spoken commentary. The programme was predominantly of English music of the twentieth and twenty first centuries, with the Poulenc, Quem Vidistis Pastores Dicite, and the Sweelinck, Hodie Christus Natus est, and one further piece of immense rarity. There were two pieces composed by Alistair Knight, a rather lovely Cradle Song, and a piece called, All the joyful bells a-ringing, full of dingdongs. The Cradle Song is worth hearing again, but I have a deep-seated concern about songs full of dingdongs. After Ding Dong Merrily On High, I don't think we need to go there anymore.

There were a bare double handful of singers and their tone in general was bright and well blended, though at times the men over shadowed the female voices, and the one blemish in the concert was bar or so of the Poulenc, when the men seem to have lost their nerve, but they recovered their composure quickly enough. The rarity was a movement from Mendelssohn's oratorio, Christus, which probably hasn't been performed in Adelaide in seventy years or more. There shall a star from Jacob come forth, it says, and conductor, Knight, with some fancy foot work, became one of the three kings for their solo spot. It would be good if they could keep him, and it would have been really nice if young organist, Alana Brook, had been given a solo. There were congregational carols, but I find that, unless I know the bass part by heart, they are now all too high for me to sing.

To post a comment, you must register and login.

Need more Australia - Adelaide Theatre News in your life? Sign up for all the news on the Spring season, discounts & more...