Our Ian C Douglas checks out the Tenebrae Choir at the Royal Concert Hall...
The set is bare, other than two Christmas trees and fir-green curtains at the back. Voices come from offstage. Singing. Like carollers but sweeter than any carollers that ever graced my doors. Still singing, they slowly and gracefully appear from the depths of the Concert Hall. They are, of course, Tenebrae: the award-winning choir and one of the world’s leading vocal ensembles.
And so, Tenebrae’s Christmas Conversation had begun. Ninety minutes of seasonal music, from medieval carols (In Dulci Jubilo) through Victorian classics (In the Bleak Midwinter) to modern compositions (The Aldeburgh Carol) and with a sprinkling of Christmas humour along the way.
The choir were simply superb. It’s hard to imagine anything better. The power of their voices lifted us and took us away on a snowy adventure, not unlike Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman. Such crystalline harmonies, so powerfully belted out. As if we there, deep in the snow-dappled forests, the icy mountains, the grottoes and mangers. And the choristers made it appear so effortless. Honey for the ears.
It was all very much Christmas past, present and future, leaping from jokes to profundity with ease
And to add to the richness of the experience, each song was punctuated by short readings from actor Clive Mantle. Ruminations on all things Yuletide, from the curse of Christmas cards to the loneliness of a bereaved holiday. It was all very much Christmas past, present and future, leaping from jokes to profundity with ease. And brilliantly read by Clive, our genial host in this aural winter wonderland.
The script incidentally, by Garth Bardsley, was spot on. Cleverly, it tugged at our communal nostalgia for the festivities, absent friends, and lost innocence.
Tenebrae’s award-winning conductor was Nigel Short. As well as marshalling his troops with the aplomb of a major-general, he sings too. He joined three of his singers for a rendition of Christmas Cards by Ben Parry, one of the most recent compositions and very funny. The other rib-tickler was the performance of The Twelve Days of Christmas. Naturally, this is one of the longer songs. But as it multiplied into ever larger and larger numbers, farmyard animals began to moo, nay and cock-a-doodle. Perhaps the choir double as ventriloquists, for I swear I never spied one of them break from the lyrics. And yet the animal impressions grew more and more raucous, until the audience were in fits of laughter.
Gags aside, most of the concert was spiritual, soul-stirring and sublime. As Christmassy as mince pies or mistletoe. The perfect soundtrack for anyone who likes their Christmases classic and serene.
Tenebrae: A Christmas Conversation played at the Royal Concert Hall on 19 December 2023
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