I have always been a bit ambivalent about the music of Arvo Pärt, recognising his achievement in crafting a new kind of choral music, while often finding it hard to love, especially in large doses. Which is why I welcomed the approach of the Carice Singers (with Christopher Bowers-Broadbent on the organ) and George Parris in making this concert, one of a series marking Pärt’s 90th birthday, also a celebration of a much younger Estonian composer whose music, although very different, made for an intriguing point of comparison.
Evelin Seppar (b.1986) (pictured below by by Sade-triis Jurikaas) was not a name I knew, but her music made an impression, and a strong, individual identity emerged in the Carice Singers’ performances. We had four of her pieces, of which one was a world premiere – commissioned by the choir – and two others were UK premieres. I hope she gains a foothold among UK choirs.
Her music shares with Pärt’s a singlemindedness, an implacable sureness and hieratic, no frills, style. Harmonically, though, her music is a world away. Where Pärt’s chords are largely diatonic, Seppar conjures up a web of chromatic clusters, which gradually transform and move with an organic development. Psalm 129 particularly impressed me, building through a complex cloud of harmony to a glistening, forceful final unison. I liked conductor George Parris’s idea to run each half without applause between items – but it was all I could do not to clap at the end of this.
Seppar’s new commission in the second half, Kuskil maailma äärel, is part of a longer piece, but here we only got eight minutes. But it was bigger than that, having a monumental quality, chords morphing impassively from one to another, an ascetic but arresting music. The choir sang this technically challenging piece to the very highest standard, the tuning faultless, the stylistic awareness keen.
As for the Pärt, the selection was well-chosen and sequenced – only Virgencita raised familiar doubts, feeling overextended and (whisper it) a bit dull. But the Magnificat was suitably magnificent, the choir making light of its difficulties. Pärt’s writing can be so exposing for singers, the voice-leading following its own logic – very much not the logic of the traditional textbook – sometimes even down to just two voices. But it was all done brilliantly, particularly the glowing sound of the final bars.
Two pieces by Galina Grigorjeva offered some more variety, with Imogen Russell’s radiant solo lighting up Spring is Coming, and her witty There Will Come Soft Rains had a folky lilt and echoes of early Stravinsky. And then we had a Pärt showpiece, Which Was the Son Of, setting the litany of names given in Luke’s gospel as Jesus’s direct lineage from Adam. It has a lightness not always associated with Pärt, and the singers responded in kind, finding the perky humour in the barbershop section for lower voices.
Carice are a top-drawer choir operating at the top of their game. The understated but very communicative conducting of George Parris was the calm centre of things and I am sure this, the choir’s first appearance at the Barbican complex, won’t be their last.
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