| "Music at Blenheim Palace"
In 2006, encouraged by His Grace, the Duke of Marlborough, Stephen Duckett, who works at Blenheim Palace, and is coincidentally a fine organist, devised a series of musical events for Sunday afternoons in the summer, and half-hour recitals on the magnificent Willis organ at noon on Friday mornings. These events proved popular with the general public, whose visits to Blenheim were greatly enhanced by some fine gratuitous music.
By happy chance, Duckett was introduced to Tom Hammond-Davies, Organ Scholar at Hertford College, Oxford and it was not long before the concept of 'The Blenheim Singers' was born. After advertising for voices and auditioning a number of Oxford singers, the new choir gave its first concert – a highly successful performance of Parts I and II of Messiah in early December 2006. The venue chosen was the Chapel of the Palace, a relatively small auditorium with a superb acoustic, but sadly, relatively little space (or heating) for the audience. However those who did attend were ecstatic and were anxious to assure the choir that further concerts would be welcome.
On Sunday 11 March they were rewarded by a second concert – this time of Lenten a capella music by British composers but also including the ever-popular Allegri Miserere (which featured three solo sopranos all fully confident of the daunting top C and going even higher with their own balletic embellishments). The concert was framed at the beginning and end by the two great anthems for double choir by William Harris (Faire is the Heaven, and Bring us O Lord).
From the very first opening chords, it was clear that Hammond-Davies had chosen his twelve singers with great care and had been rewarded with an ensemble in which every singer knew exactly what was required of him or her. Paradoxically, perhaps the greatest forte of this group is its ability to sing even the quietest of ppp passages with emotion, sensitivity and exact intonation (I noticed only one occasion on which there was a suspicion that one of the voices was lost!).
At the other extreme, when required, The Blenheim Singers were able to produce a thrilling fortissimo, but always under the secure control of the conductor (I was impressed by his ability to ensure that the ultimate chord of each piece was held for just the length of time that ensured that no singer ran out of breath – no staggered breathing here). The concert also included a superb rendering of the Howells Requiem; Thomas Weelkes, When David Heard; Parry, There is an Old Belief; Purcell, Hear my Prayer O Lord; and the lesser-known Reproaches, by the Gloucester Cathedral organist, John Sanders.
It would be churlish, and unnecessary to find fault with a choir of this calibre, particularly at this early stage in their life. They will undoubtedly go on to be an established part of the Oxfordshire music scene and we hope to hear much more of them.
There must be some down sides – and these are not to do with the choir. In the first place, beautiful and striking as the Chapel is – it is too small to house an audience of more than about 60. The seating, such as there is, is not very comfortable and the lack of heating puts a big question mark over the possibility of future concerts at any time but the summer. The second down side was the lack of advertisement resulting in an audience which at the most was about 40. It was splendid for the friends and family of the choir to enjoy today's concert but this choir deserves to be heard by a much larger audience. Both matters could most probably be righted firstly by resiting the concerts in the Long Library (or perhaps in the delightful gardens in high summer) and secondly by good advance publicity in the media. So watch this space.
Dr. Charles Mould |
