Once upon a time it was standard practice that most public concerts in Britain would be preceded by the National Anthem; last night in Huddersfield Town Hall a great many members of the audience were caught off guard when a brass and percussion fanfare struck up into the loudest, most ecstatic rendition of ‘God Save the Queen’ I have ever heard. Two verses were sung, split between soprano soloist Katherine Broderick and the chorus with audience participation. This in itself was a fine example of the mighty massed choral experience one has come to expect of the Huddersfield Choral Society’s decades of tradition.
At this point the concert began in earnest, and the lyrical, meanderingly melancholic melody of Gabriel Fauré’s Pavane, heard first on the flute underpinned by pizzicato strings, set the mood for the remaining two French works. The initial female chorus entries were slightly shaky, but they soon found their way into Fauré’s five-minute masterpiece and, in combination with the tenors and basses, exhibited wonderful choral texture and restraint coupled with excellent orchestral control under the baton of Bramwell Tovey.
Following Fauré’s familiar favourite came a work much less heard in England, Gounod’s charmingly tuneful Messe solennelle de Sainte Cécile. Composed in 1885, Gounod’s Messe is an example of his facility for colourful orchestration and the kind of memorable melodies that leave you humming them for days after. In this work of contrasts, Gounod exploits a variety of styles throughout including moments of Italiana, Mozart, Beethoven, Verdi, and at one point even a striking resemblance to the slow movement of Elgar’s First Symphony.
The Kyrie got off to a good start, well paced with good choral balance throughout, though a little strain in the tenor’s high notes was apparent. The trio of soloists intervened and soprano Katherine Broderick, tenor James Edwards, and baritone Roderick Williams were a well-suited and musically sympathetic ensemble.
The Gloria is very powerful but opens with a smooth and lyrical solo on the French horn in which the Orchestra of Opera North’s principal horn player Robert Ashworth exhibited controlled and accurate but musical playing. This movement is an opportunity for the chorus to really raise the roof, and the volume achieved was truly astonishing. Incorporating the solo soprano, this movement displayed Broderick in fine voice, though, as with the tenors earlier, this high French choral writing does have its problems and a few extremely high notes were approached with some difficulty. This was, though, soon forgotten, and Williams, accompanied by a solo oboe, softened the mood with his familiar warm baritone before being joined by a clear and resonant Edwards.