Nottingham Bach Choir
I'd gone into my third year with little idea about what I wanted to do when I finished university. While looking at company prospectuses I read that those who studied classics often had the aptitude for computer programming. The careers department at Nottingham University arranged for me to have an aptitule test with Boots, who had a long connection with the university. I passed the test and was offered a job. So while several of may fellow students went off to work in exotic places, I stayed in the same city.
I spent the first few months adjusting to working life, but decided I wanted to join a choir. I heard that Nottingham Bach Choir, under the directon of Ivor Keys, who I had already sung under in the University Choir, were doing Bach's St Matthew Passion. When I saw him at a concert that a friend and I were attending, I went up to him and asked if we could join. As I think he recognised us as former students, he accepted us without audition.
The choir took its name literally in that Bach dominated its repertoire. Though the bass line was new to me, it was easy to settle in with singers who were familiar with the St Matthew. I don't remember much about the performance, but one thing did make a lasting impression. The choir had its own orchestra of local amateur musicians, which had the advantage that we could have an extra rehearsal with them before the concert day. But because they had other jobs, they were not always able to arrive on time. So we started the rehearsal with only lower strings. Hearing the orchestral opening with the main tune missing made a fascinating sound that had a beauty of its own.
The first time we assembled after the concert, Ivor Keys started with an apology. "I hope you don't mind," he said, "but we will be doing the St Matthew again next year. You see, I have booked Janet Baker, and it was a question of fitting it into her diary as she has engagements years ahead." Most of the choir would have been happy to repeat the work anyway, so there were no objections.
It was a memorable day when she came and sang with us. Hearing her perform "Have mercy Lord on me" was like nothing I had heard before and her duet with the soprano in the duet that precedes "Have lightnings and thunders" was a perfect match. There was also a superb tenor in Nigel Rogers.
Before the concert took place, Ivor Keys announced that he would be leaving us as he had been appointed Professor of Music at Birmingham University. So the committee had to find a replacement. One of the first people they approached was the man who was to replace him at Nottingham University, Denis Arnold. He initially declined, saying he was the wrong man for the job as said he didn't like Bach! However he was approached again when all other avenues drew a blank, and he agreed on condition that he would not be expected to perform any of the major Bach works in his first year.
His first concert did in fact include four parts of the Christmas Oratorio, in addition to one or two smaller pieces, which meant a rather late finish. The performance was enhanced by the fact that the orchestra was augmented by three trumpeters from the London Symphony Orchestra. But he was quick to introduce us to Monteverdi. This was a composer who at the time was little more than a name to most of us, but was his speciality. The first piece he introduced was Beatus Vir, which is now quite well-known, but bowled us over.
In his second season he introduced us to the Monteverdi's Vespers of 1910. Though we used the Stevens edition, still the standard, which just included the main choral movements, he added two or three other sections for which only hand-written parts were available. He explained that he had been doing a lot of research on Monteverdi and believed that these movements would have been included in the original performances by the composer. The performance took place in our usual concert venue, St Mary's High Pavement, probably the nearest Nottingham has to an Anglican Cathedral. And a novelty was that we had a chamber organ in addition to the main instrument. The choir generally got on well with the music, but were delighted when he decided that he was ready to tackle a major Bach work, the Mass in B Minor.
This was the first time I had sung it, so it was quite a challenge to learn it. But the whole process of bringing the choir up to performance standard was fascinating. I am lucky enough to have performed the big Bach works several times, but this was the only occasion when the chorus master was going through the same kind of learning process as we were. He admitted that he was getting to like the piece and to understand how it all fitted together, including the solo movements.
For the performance we once again brought in top professional trumpeters, which are pretty crucial. Denis arranged for his son, who had all the right equipment, to record it. He asked the soloists and the trumpeters if they had any objections. The soloists were all very pleased about it. The trumpeters said that they didn't mind, as long as the movements that they were involved in were not included, as this was against Musicians Union rules. The choir were very disappointed but nothing could be done. The performance went very well, and the conductor was very pleased to have done it.
The following season there was more Bach, and in the spring the Southwell Choral Society invited as many singers as were available to join them in a performance of St Matthew Passion in the Minster. It was a fine place to perform it, but the only thing I remember about it was that the orchestra, even though they were professional, were not very good, as if they were not used to playing Bach.
In the summer we were back in Southwell Minster for another performance of the Vespers of 1910. But this was no ordinary performance. Denis Arnold had completed his research into the origins of the work and added some more movements. This was grandly billed as the first complete performance of the work in modern times. A distinguished array of soloists took part, including the tenor Anthony Rolfe-Johnson. And we went one better than the last time in that there were no less than 3 organs: one was continuo in the main choruses, and two to accompany different groups of soloists in different parts of the building. All told it was a very special night.
The movements that we sang that night were all those that are now recognised as the full score of the Vespers. I am proud to have been involved that night, and I am surprised that I have not heard Professor Arnold's name credited for his achievement. A few years later I bought what I think was the first recording of this version, and his name is not mentioned in the sleeve notes. In his Wikipedia entry there is mention of his work on Monteverdi, but not this work, though I am not sure what this proves.
This was my last concert with Nottingham Bach Choir after five enjoyable years. More than a year earlier I had decided that I wanted to work abroad, after my unambitious decision to stay in Nottingham after graduation. I wanted to go somewhere a bit different, and fulfilled that desire by taking a job with a mining company in Liberia. I suspected, as it turned out, that there would be little if any chance of performing music, so I invested heavily in new LPs. I was there for four and a half interesting .years. .
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