'Voices that should be heard'
A world premiere to celebrate the school centenary in music
26 March 2011
When Philip Barnett approached me at the Centenary day to join the choir of Voices,
I agreed readily. The fact that the last formal choral singing I had done was probably
when I was at the school some 40 years previously did not dawn on me until later
and it was with mixed feelings that I attended the first rehearsal. I needn’t have
worried as the members of the Tonic Choir and the Amici Chamber Choir more than
made up for any ‘rustiness’ on the part of us less regular choristers.
It is a tribute to the talents of Bryan Kesselman that, although Voices blended
together in a complex and impressive way, the individual choral parts were not too
onerous to learn. The learners joined us at the last rehearsal before the big day,
and another piece of the jigsaw fell into place. None of us had heard the entire
work; the learners, choir, orchestra, soloists, dancers and narrators had all rehearsed
separately prior to the run-through on performance day.
There could only be one reaction to the opening bars – wow! It was then it became
apparent we were part of a stunning achievement by Philip and a major work of musical
brilliance by Bryan. It was also the first time we had heard Nadine and Jonathan,
again – wow! The first performance went without a hitch, and from the stage one
could see the reaction of the audience. They were spellbound. One person even asked
if the performance had been amplified as he was so impressed by the ‘wall of sound’
produced by a full choir and orchestra in full forte mode.
By the end of the second performance there was only one question on everyone’s lips
– when can we do it again (to quote Omar Khayyam, “who knows?”). Everyone who took
part and helped in the production can be justly proud of the result, and what is
as important we thoroughly enjoyed doing it.
Steve Jones (HCS 1965-1972)
