Belshazzar's Feast; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Christmas project - review

Royal Festival Hall, the connection of St. Martin in London

Instead of spending Christmas 1929 with his mother, William Walton gave as an excuse the need to get to work "on this thing for the BBC." A farce by the Constitution, the composer of Lancaster did not like the holidays anyway, and he wrote saying that he would spend the day "on the train where you do not notice." Today, in the absence of trains, which would have to spend on the platform, where you may have noticed, and when working on a new marker may have been more problematic if drafts.

The "thing" in question was the oratory of 10 chapters

Fiesta

Baltasar (1931), one of his most popular and greater, requiring baritone solo, choir double, two bands, organ and orchestra. He was elected as the work to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the founding of St. John's College, Cambridge, taking into account a full concert hall last Thursday. In an act of generosity Andrew Nethsingha collaboration, music director since 2007 of the famous choir of San Juan, invited four mixed voices choir from Cambridge to join their men and children for a mass return of the voice of this remarkable spectacle Musical.

described by one critic as an early work marked "Judaism,"

Baltasar

no elements of Christmas, except perhaps a list of Walton races brief reference to it, in which the baritone (David Stout) contains a list of the wealth of Babylon: gold, silver, precious stones, pearls, fine linen, purple silk, ivory, wood, brass, iron, marble, cinnamon, incense, oil, wine, horses - and the souls of men. Brilliant Osbert Sitwell, the biblical text is taken from the book of Daniel, and Psalm 137 ("by the waters of Babylon ").

with the accompaniment of explosives and offer Philharmonic under the baton of skilled Nethsingha, and the voices of young highly qualified Cayo, Clara, Jesus, the Trinity, and St. John was also an excellent performance : almost perfectly drilled, with strong attention to detail and dynamics, and the text.

Despite being a fifth centenary event was also a question of low cost, without shirt, waving or the Mamba style here. First, the choir of St. John has sung a cappella by Herbert Howells, university organist at a time, and Jonathan Harvey, a graduate of John, which shows the unique sound of the choir. Often described as continental in the use of vibrato, the choir of San Juan has a rich and warm quality that never removes individual voice. This is illustrated in the exquisite Harvey "I love the Lord." Then all the choirs, the warming

Baltasar

, Parry vigorously sung "I was happy." And parryi Parry-side, so they were. Choral singing is not better.

For over a quarter century of

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

collaborated in creating music with a variety of people in London, including including homeless people. Christmas project this year was in connection with the St Martin-in-the-Fields, where a handful of musicians RPO has worked with dozens of "users" of the day center, some even with their backpacks tests a night on the street, others recently, but always had to rely on daily support.

arrive in mid-workshop, I immediately realized it was the RPA, that from the connection. Neither felt that he could identify the song, catchy song with such confidence and unanimity, with its "Hallelujah" refrain. Horn, cello and clarinet - the item RPO - woven around improvised melody lines with different guitars, keyboards, vibraphone, bongos and drums, adding depending on the skills and the

Paul Griffiths, project manager of musical creation of the RPA and the composer of training, and Chris Lampard, a project worker at the center, held in conjunction with a mild severity obtained impressive results. Lampard, calm, polite and trustworthy, of course, was not homeless, "but I left school without qualifications. I know about addiction. I never went to the black hole, but I asked. "

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