We are lucky to live in a city with so many opportunities to listen to great music, whatever ones preferred genre! In this rich landscape Sydney Chamber Choir is one of our great treasures.
Established in 1975 as the Sydney University Chamber Choir, it has been led by Nicholas Routley as well as Paul Stanhope and the late Richard Gill. Since 2019 the Artistic Director has been Sam Allchurch. The choir has appeared at the Sydney Festival, the Canberra International Music Festival and has toured internationally in Asia and earlier this year in Germany. It has been the recipient of many accolades and awards, including APRA-AMCOS awards for Choral work of the year in 2022 and 2023.
The Sydney Chamber Choir has delighted audiences for half a century presenting a wide range of chamber choral works from the Baroque, the Renaissance to the newly commissioned works we heard in the delightful gala concert I attended celebrating its 50th birthday (July 5th, City Recital Hall). Their mission has been to both delight with known works and to challenge and stimulate by introducing listeners to completely new music. The concert I heard yesterday was beautifully put together.
In the first half of the concert, five new works commissioned for the occasion had their world premiere, each very different and each exquisite and each dedicated to the concept of love. An added delight was that each composer, apart from Meta Cole whose sister wrote the lyrics, attended the concert and was acknowledged by the audience.
Dharriwaa, Narran Lakes Dreaming provided a spectacular opening number. Nardi Simpson, a Yuwaalaraay musician and author, conceived this piece in which she expressed her love and connection to the beautiful inland waterways of northwestern NSW. It was redolent of the spectacular landscapes of our country, featuring the spoken word as well as indigenous voices of Nardi Simpson’s nieces and nephew of Nardi Simpson’s nieces.
It was interesting too and moving, to see a group of singers so obviously from many different ethnic origins celebrating our country with so much love. This was a piece that, through the lovely words, imagery and music of Nerida Simpson really brought country to every member of the audience.
The theme of love continued with a very interesting work by eminent Australian composer, Anne Cawrse, with a setting of Corinthians 1 ‘Love is patient….’
Paul Stanhope has been associated with the Sydney Chamber Choir for 30 years and is an award-winning composer and the recipient of 5 APRA award since 2011. Currently he is associate professor of composition at the University of Sydney, and artistic director of choral programs at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He set Katherine Mansfield’s delightful poem, ‘Camomile Tea’. This piece was light and airy about the love we find in domestic life and reflected the long and productive relationship the choir has had with this supremely talented Australian- ‘We might be fifty, we might be five, so snug, so compact, so wise are we!’
‘Love is a fadeless flower whose roots are in the heart’, the words of 19th century Irish/Australian poet Victor Daley- the first Australian author to make his living only through writing. This gift of love to the audience was composed by Luke Byrne who has sung with the choir since 2015. Luke Byrne has sung and played with choir since 2015.
The final work before interval was Meteora by Meta Cohen, sound engineer and composer and pupil of Paul Stanhope setting the words of a poem by her sister, Leona. This was the most complex and obviously difficult work musically – about the yearning associated with love, full of celestial references.
Each of these works were beautifully rendered by the choir with no instrumental accompaniment. The complex nature of most of this contemporary music demanded absolute accuracy of pitch and timing – and this amazingly talented group of people led by their director and conductor Sam Allchurch made it all look easy. Each musical moment was perfect – reflecting the care and love that was obviously put into the preparation. Visually as well, the concert was beautifully designed- gone was the basic black of many choirs, these choristers were in carefully coordinated shades of blue, green and orange dresses for by the ladies and shirts for the men; they looked fabulous.
In the second half of the concert, the choir was joined on stage by soprano, Brooke Window and English tenor Richard Butler, as well as instrumentalists Nicola Bell (oboe/cor-anglais),Richard Shaw(clarinet),Andrew Barnes(bassoon),Euan Harvey(French Horn), Emily Granger (Harp) and Jess Ciampa (percussion) for a performance of Paul Stanhope’s Requiem, written for and first performed by the choir in 2022 . This was the centrepiece of the concert. The requiem has some sections such as the Introit following the traditional texts and others set to the beautiful poetry of indigenous poet, Oodgeroo Noonuccal (1920-1993) as well as Mary Elizabeth Fry and Emily Dickinson. The incorporation of these texts made the requiem much more meaningful to us.
The work was commissioned by Russell Mills as a ‘thank you’ to Richard Gill, however individual sections feature their own dedications.
Musically rich and incorporating many different conditions there were opportunities in this large magnificent work for various members of the choir to perform solos complementing perfectly the two talented soloists.
This was truly a gala concert- each work carefully curated to showcase the quality of the performers and the wonderfully talented composers who have long standing connections with the choir. I was sorry that there would only be one performance.
Photography by Robert Catto
