Nantwich Choral Society Sings Haydns The Seasons
Major Work of Austrian Composer Impressively Sung by Local Choir
Jun 29, 2009
Nantwich Choral Society gave an uplifting rendition of Franz Joseph Haydn's The Seasons at Nantwich Civic Hall, Cheshire, England on Saturday Night, June 27th.
It was to commemorate the bicentenary of Haydn’s death and what a marker it was.
Written at the end of his life The Seasons is very much that of a man at the peak of his creativity.
A Complex Piece to Begin With
Complex and demanding this is not a piece for novices or those who seek whistle-later tunes. It might have been easier to do the more established Creation Oratorio but Nantwich doesn’t do things by half. So how did they fare?
Tackling a lengthy and significant piece like this takes guts but the Choir along with the Northern Concordia Orchestra tackled it with conviction despite a lack of sharpness and clarity at the beginning.
It was though a bold start whatever and Haydn wrote for spaces and places much grander than a provincial English hall so it well could be the acoustics.
Sparked into Life
Where it sparked into life and it was soon, was the first chorus, a flowing lyrical piece of music where the grace and the glide was quickly apparent something that all those taking part managed to keep going for the next two hours.
If there were any real stars it was the chorus who sang with a self-belief that inspired without losing sight of the gentleness of much of the music. The harder, darker bits were also carried off with aplomb – a difficult thing to do and something that has defeated many professionals choirs and singers.
This does mean the others were weak or lacking. Far from it. The Northern Concordia that early blip (and short) blip to one side more than held their own and the three soloists were commendable.
Special Mentions
One who deserves special mention was Martin Minter who sang tenor with a notable clarity and a well rounded tone. Baritone Marcus Farnsworth visibly grew into his part bringing some force to the later parts of the work and whilst soprano Jane Johnson might be a tad too theatrical to the taste of some purists she too sang with conviction.
This is a piece that is sometimes described as light but at two hours in length thats open to question and some parts such as Winter are harder, darker sections. Those too were dealt with well both by orchestra and choir.
And One Enduring Problem
Where there was a problem was something well beyond the choir´s control – the libretto- Even the great man himself despaired of this. Any websearch on this usually brings up Haydn’s rather dim view of the words he had to work with. This new version doesn’t seem to have corrected that fault
Frankly its hard to appreciate a work of art that talks, seemingly without irony, of “the sparkling juice will raise the mirth to shouts of joy.” Or “the waterfall plunging from towering cliff.” Although that’s not anywhere near as bad as villagers “gather the welcome work to do.”
The point is not to complain but to suggest that with a decent libretto Nantwich Choral Society could do even better on already high standards.
