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18th July 2011.
C.S. Lewis Concert at Holy Trinity Church
""Headington Quarry." "
By: Julia Gasper. Yesterday the Friends of Holy Trinity church hosted a world premiere in Headington Quarry, the first ever performance of Roger Teichmann’s setting of four songs from the Narnia books by C.S.Lewis. It was part of a concert of choral music themed around the life and works of this much beloved local celebrity, who is still remembered personally by some of the older members of the congregation and choir. Lewis lived in Risinghurst, taught at Magdalen College, Oxford and attended Holy Trinity Church where there is a beautiful Narnia window in memory of him. Readings and reminiscences about Lewis were interspersed between the items of music. The concert opened with Yeats’ song “Down by the Sally Gardens,” arranged by Teichmann. This was chosen because Lewis was born in Ireland and loved Yeats’ poetry. The church choir then performed three typical anthems from a collegiate choral evensong, without any organ accompaniment as curiously enough Lewis did not like the organ. We then had a rare treat as the soloists Lucy Matheson and Sally Mears, performed settings of Elizabethan poetry to the accompaniment of the Apollo consort of viols. This acknowledged Lewis’s solid achievements as a professor of Renaissance literature. The soloists’ unaccompanied performance of duets by Thomas Morley was exquisite and was one of the highlights of the evening, The Pilgrim’s Chorus from Wagner’s Tannhauser was included to reflect Lewis’s love of Wagner. He and J.R.R.Tolkien would often travel up to London by train to hear the operas at Covent Garden. In this piece, it might have been better to omit the string accompaniment, which in truth only detracted from the noble sound of the male voice choir. Roger Teichmann is a local boy as, like Lewis, he is a lecturer at Oxford University. He has written prize-winning operas and cantatas. His Narnia songs are set for a chorus of women’s voices accompanied by a string quartet, two recorders, trumpet, cymbals and bells. This imaginative scoring and texture made up for any lack of obvious melody. The ending with the sound of bells resonating sweetly was truly beautiful. The concert concluded with Elgar’s little-known four-part-song My Love Dwelt in a Northern Land, performed by the whole choir with sensitive and beautiful phrasing. It was a terrific end to a very varied and stimulating concert. Julia Gasper. http://www.rogerteichmann.org.uk/index.html | ||
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