The date of the first – apparently Georgian – “Music Meeting” staged by the cathedral choirs of Worcester, Hereford and Gloucester, remains a bit clouded; yet by 1719 evidence of its existence appears firm. It was probably initiated by Hereford: shortly after, Hereford’s Chancellor alludes to “a fortuitous and friendly proposal, between a few lovers of harmony, and brethren of the correspondent choirs, to commence an anniversary visit to be kept in turn.” 1715 – one year after the Hanoverians’ accession – is now adjudged the gathering’s most likely launch date: thus summer 2015 qualified as the 300th anniversary.
Annually, the Three Cathedral Choirs’ concert – the evenings’ high point this year (in Bach) – remains a centrepiece of the week. But the festival overall retains the Victorian formula: a massed triple choral society, singing hefty oratorios; plus a host of morning and afternoon recitals. Not surprisingly, the magnificent Three Choirs Festival Chorus, performing over six of the seven main concerts in the cathedral nave, was at the heart of this tercentenary jamboree.
The host Director of Music designs each festival, backed by a supportive, active committee which delivered spectacular surprises, of which Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie, superlatively conducted by the magisterial Jac van Steen, prefaced by the Prelude and Liebestod from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, was surely the most dramatic: powerful, expressive, breathtakingly orchestrated (the percussion section excelling) and the more awesomely impressive because composed in 1946-8: scarcely a third of the way through Messiaen’s career.
As the 2015 festival’s Artistic Director, Geraint Bowen conducted three main events: first came a Dream of Gerontius that included deeply involving performances from Sarah Connolly and the resplendent Neal Davies, but especially from tenor Paul Nilon, an unusual last-minute replacement, who brought all the dramatic skills and plaintive appeal of his opera roles to the title role: thus Sanctus fortis gained an unusually pained, tragic demeanour, while much else yielded aching timbres, underscoring Gerontius’ Christ-recalling passion and emotional confusion. The choir made vicious demons, but it was their brilliant “Praise to the holiest”, prefaced by superb altos, which capped a memorable reading.
Baritone Roderick Williams launched the afternoon recitals with another surprise: the first time one had heard Elgar’s Sea Pictures sung by a broken voice. The effect was striking and characterful, though maybe not as alluring as if offered by, say, Connolly or Janet Baker. Vaughan Williams’s Four Last Songs, to mythologically-inspired words by his second wife, Ursula, were a revelation. The highlight was A Swift Radiant Morning, five settings of Charles Sorley by Rhian Samuel, a festival commission of great originality which calls for semi-spoken or even shouted effects from the soloist. They were written with Williams in mind, and Samuel’s oblique harmonies plus the explosive evocation of war by this young poet who died at Loos in 1915, aged 20, made a universal impression.
One under-appreciated feature of the Three Choirs is the number of commissions it engenders; at Hereford, at least half-a-dozen. Groups like Ensemble 360 (led by flautist Juliette Bausor), the Wihan Quartet or the Orlando Consort conjured up their own afternoon programmes; but Voces 8, added an Alec Roth choral première, the four-section Stargazer (words W.H. Davies and others), to their sequence including Gibbons, de Pearsall and Norwegian-born American Ola Gjeilo’s Ubi Caritas. The Sunday night service unveiled Prayer of Thomas Ken (“Glory to Thee, my God, this night”), by George Arthur, young winner of the Three Choirs 300th anniversary choral competition. The midweek Radio 3 broadcast introduced a newly-commissioned Evening Service by Bob Chilcott, in which the tender Nunc dimittis arguably outshone a dancing Magnificat. Anthony Powers added another desirable commission, his organ chorale prelude O Gott, du frommer Gott – with the chorale tune in the pedals – to a staggeringly polished, weighty morning recital by New York’s John Scott.