{"id":2036,"date":"2024-06-23T18:02:39","date_gmt":"2024-06-23T17:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elyconsort.org.uk\/?p=2036"},"modified":"2024-06-27T08:16:41","modified_gmt":"2024-06-27T07:16:41","slug":"ely-consort-in-long-melford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elyconsort.org.uk\/?p=2036","title":{"rendered":"Ely Consort in Long Melford"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Date<\/strong><\/em>:<\/del> Saturday 22nd June 2024
Venue<\/strong><\/em>: Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford
Programme<\/strong><\/em>: Varied: Bach, Brahms, Gjeilo, Dove, Hagenburg, Lauridsen
Featuring<\/strong><\/em>: Ely Consort, Conductor ~ Matthew Rudd<\/strong><\/em>,
Piano<\/strong>: Anne Reece<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ely Consort travelled away from their home city to sing an excellent concert in Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford, Suffolk. The striking C15th building provided the perfect stage for music composed from Bach in the 1720s to pieces by living composers (the most recent in 2022). The Choir under the leadership of its conductor Matthew Rudd<\/strong> continues to build on its reputation of being one of the premier chamber choirs in East Anglia. Under his direction, they were able to deftly change gears and styles to encompass the different musical genres across repertoire spanning 300 years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The concert began with the most modern piece Plaudite, psallite (Daugirdas<\/strong>)<\/em>, a joyous fanfare and was sung with energy and exuberance while maintaining balance and musicality. This was followed by one of the crowning moments of C20th English choral music, Faire is the Heaven<\/em> by William Harris<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em> The Choir sang with gravitas and dignity but maintained a musical flexibility and touch so that it never sounded heavy or ponderous. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anne Reece<\/strong> who accompanies the choir played solo piano pieces; Brahms<\/em> Intermezzo & Romanze<\/em><\/strong> with accuracy and a lilting grace, capturing the nuanced emotions and intricate dynamics of the piece. The pianists delicate touch and expressive phrasing brought out the lyrical beauty and depth, making for a moving and memorable rendition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The choir returned to sing The Music of stillness (Elaine Hagenberg<\/strong>)<\/em> which when performed as well as it was here, begins with a simple and serene opening and builds to a peak before returning to tranquillity and stillness. In contrast, the next piece Wo ist ein so herrlich Volk<\/em>, a motet for double choir by Brahms<\/em><\/strong> was well delivered in the romantic style with the musical themes being passed around all 8 of the voice lines without losing any of the overall shape or direction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first half of the concert concluded with the JS Bach<\/em><\/strong> motet, Lobert den Herrn<\/em>. The performance sparkled with energy and drive from the first entry which it maintained through to the last note. The singers demonstrated their ability to remain light on their feet, with the many, many vocal runs placed skillfully in rhythm and accurately in pitch. It was a highlight in a very well sung programme. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the interval, the Choir continued to demonstrate versatility, commencing with Sure on this shining night (Morten Lauridsen<\/strong>) <\/em>capturing the musical beauty and spiritual depth of the composer’s setting of a poem by James Agee<\/em><\/strong>. They next sang 4 movements from The Passing of the year<\/em> (Jonathan Dove<\/em><\/strong>). Answer July (Emily Dickinson)<\/strong>, Ah, Sunflower (William Blake)<\/strong>, Adieu! Farewell earth bliss! (Thomas Nashe)<\/strong> and Ring Out wild bells (Alfred Tennyson)<\/em>. In addition to the splendid and exciting singing, a particular mention is deserved for Anne Reece<\/strong> for a bravura performance of a near fiendish piano accompaniment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The concert concluded with a piece Unicornis captivatur (Ola Gjeilo<\/strong>)<\/em> for which the text completed around 1400 is taken from a compilation of Swiss mediaeval chants. The first line of which does indeed translate to The Unicorn is captured\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The quality of the singing as well as the ability to perform convincingly in a number of styles was exceptional and the ensemble responded well to the direction and musical talent of their conductor Matthew Rudd<\/strong>. The next performance of the Ely Consort will be on Saturday 7th December <\/strong>in Chatteris Parish Church<\/strong>. The Choir has a mailing list (info@elyconsort.org.uk<\/a>) which sends out details of future concerts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Date: Saturday 22nd June 2024 Venue: Holy Trinity Church, Long MelfordProgramme: Varied: Bach, Brahms, Gjeilo, Dove, Hagenburg, LauridsenFeaturing: Ely Consort, Conductor ~ Matthew Rudd, Piano: Anne Reece Ely Consort travelled away from their home city to sing an excellent concert … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-concerts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2MCku-wQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elyconsort.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elyconsort.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elyconsort.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elyconsort.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elyconsort.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2036"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/elyconsort.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2048,"href":"https:\/\/elyconsort.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2036\/revisions\/2048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elyconsort.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elyconsort.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elyconsort.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}