Page 273 - Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Coverage Book 2023-24

Proceedings opened with Vaughan Williams’s Five Variants on ‘Dives and Lazarus’, a work
written for string orchestra and harp in 1937 and revealing the composer’s poignant
response to an ancient melody he discovered in a collection of tunes entitled “English
Country Songs”. Partington unveiled a heartfelt warmth of expression from the Liverpool
players, their ravishing string tone bringing a demonstrable affection for the work’s modal
harmonies and layered sonorities. The ten-part string textures of the final variant, with its
beguiling cello and harp passages, crowned a memorable performance.

It was to Vaughan Williams that Gustav Holst dedicated his cantata The Hymn of Jesus, a
work that so excited its dedicatee that, after its first public performance in March 1920, he
“wanted to get up and embrace everyone and then get drunk”. The work was immediately
recognised as strikingly original, not least for Holst’s idea to write for two choirs, a semi-
chorus of treble voices and a large orchestra. Considered remarkably daring in 1920, this
work continues to arrest the ear with its unlikely blend of centuries-old plainsong, bitonality
and an exultant central panel in 5/4 time. No less startling is the composer’s choice of text
drawn from the Apocryphal Acts of John, its Christian message of suffering and redemption
intended a response to the horrors of the Great War.

In this meticulously prepared performance in the composer's 150th anniversary year, the
Cathedral choristers were suitably ethereal in their repeated “Amens” and the combined
forces of five main choral groups (from Bristol, Gloucester, Stroud, Thornbury and Wycliffe)
were resplendent in their opening declamations and reassuringly secure when required to
be dramatic, dancelike or mystical. The work’s antiphonal exchanges and asymmetric
rhythms were sung with complete assurance and its closing bars haunting in their quiet
mystery. Throughout, the orchestra were alert and sensitive collaborators, with numerous
persuasive solo contributions.

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, South Cotswold Big Sing Group and Choristers of Gloucester Cathedral

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, South Cotswold Big Sing Group and Choristers of Gloucester
Cathedral
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