A Choral Piece Requiring Four Conductors

Attended the CBSO Chorus concert last night. What a wonderful chorus it is. I first came across them in Rattle's Mahler No.2 in a CD. And then when I went to university in the UK, they came to perform at our Arts Centre quite often - I still remember their performance of Elgar's "The Dream of Gerontius" with CBSO. That was over ten years ago though. Simon Halsey was orginally the musical director of my university and also the choral conductor of the CBSO Chorus, but he left to concentrate on CBSO Chorus the year before I arrived. What a shame! His successor was not as good as he is (I know because I was a member of the chamber choir and the orchestra and people always praise Simon Halsey).

Back to the concert last night. They performed a stange piece last night, which was quite interesting. It was composed by Julian Anderson. The piece was called "Beautiful Valley of Eden". It was an a capella piece. It takes four conductors to conduct the piece!! I have never heard anything like that before. The piece puts Sopranos, Altos, Tenors and Basses into entirely different meters and speeds, but each part would make harmonius sense with the other three parts. It really showed the virtuosity of the choir.

Faure's Requiem was not a typical Requiem. It hasn't got the traditional, loud, stirring Dies Irae. The whole piece was full of a sense of peace, comfort, serenity and calmness. It was beautifully sung by the CBSO Chorus. Simon Halsey was a very good choral conductor. He/the choir could maintain a maximum control and intensity even if it was pianissimo. And when it was fortissimo, the sound it produced was louder than you would have expected for a 120 people choir.

I'd like to see more choral concerts in Hong Kong. Human voice is the best instrument.