Saturday 10 March 2007
All Saints Parish Church, Market Place, Kingston
Poulenc: Gloria
Elgar: The Music Makers
Thames Philharmonic Choir
Thames Festival Orchestra

The Thames Philharmonic Choir's contribution to 'Elgar Year', the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth, was marked with a terrific performance of The Music Makers last Saturday, coupled with Poulenc's Gloria and Malcolm Arnold's Serenade for Small Orchestra. A potentially irritating power cut at the start of the concert became an opportunity for the ever-resourceful conductor John Bate to charm the audience with some of his ebullient wit, setting the tone for an evening mixing high drama with humour.

Poulenc's Gloria is a curiously fitting work to pair with the Elgar. Both composers challenged their respective musical establishments, blending contrary qualities of mischief and reverence in their life and music, and both works form very personal statements. Poulenc reportedly said of his Gloria: "I had in mind those frescoes by Gozzoli where the angels are sticking out their tongues, and also those Benedictine monks I spotted one day playing soccer" John Bate marshalled his players accordingly with a gripping rendition by turns dramatic, pantomimic, and movingly lyrical. Some very tricky rhythmic writing kept the chorus on their toes, and the intonational challenges of Poulenc's exquisite harmonies were finely controlled. The powerful presence of the disciplined Thames Festival Orchestra never risked overwhelming the singers. In particular, the crystal clear tones of the Soprano soloist Sarah Dacey, a distinguished recent graduate of York University and the Royal Academy, floated above the rich instrumental textures with a fluent lyricism.

The Serenade for Small Orchestra served as a fitting tribute to the memory of the prolific composer Malcolm Arnold who died last autumn, serving as something of a potpourri of his characteristic musical signatures. From the opening bell-like, softly descending scales (a musical equivalent to slipping into a warm bath!) through echoes of his film scores such as the inimitable Belles of St Trinians, to the chugging romp of the final movement, orchestra and conductor were clearly having lots of fun, infectiously shared by the audience.

The second half of the concert was given over to Elgar's The Music Makers, a work sometimes maligned and misunderstood in the past. Rather than being a clumsy celebration of imperialist domination, which a superficial reading of the text might suggest, it is actually the opposite: a reflection on the transience of empire. The author of the poem, Arthur O'Shaughnessy, worked at the British Museum surrounded by the crumbling artefacts of vanished regimes. His famous reference to "movers and shakers" is specifically disparaging of the 'powerful' - the politicians, businessmen and generals who now misappropriate the phrase - to instead elevate the role of poets and musicians in effecting lasting change and influence in the world. It is sadly ironic, then, that in this 'Elgar Year', and the very week of this performance, the image of Elgar the music maker on a £20 note is being replaced by that of Adam Smith and the divided labour of his pin factory, celebrating the "great increase in the quantity of work that results" and the dog-eat-dog values perhaps too prevalent in contemporary society.

The Music Makers had a particularly personal and autobiographical resonance for Elgar. Always fond of codes and allusions, he works many quotations and references into the musical texture, veering between extremes of elation and desolation. These concentrated, wave-like mood swings, echoing Elgar's own personality, makes the work a particular challenge to perform. Again John Bate steered his way through the treacherous swell with masterful ease, drawing out the best from his committed crew. The contralto soloist, Heather Shipp, fresh from her role as a Rhinemaiden at Covent Garden, sang with engaging warmth and sincerity - just occasionally submerged by Elgar's unhelpful orchestration which sometimes masks the tessitura of the solo line. The choir's a capella sections, especially the ending, were beautifully crafted and particularly potent in their impact.

Kevin Jones, 12 March 2007