An evening showcasing texts set to music from different contexts and in various styles. Nothing too overstated, but with a performance that couldn\u2019t be under-estimated.<\/p>\n
In the opening half, we travelled with the musicians on a brief tour of part of the liturgical year: journeying from the Incarnation at Christmas, to the glory of Easter Day. The modern items were thoughtfully chosen: Wallen\u2019s prayer for \u2018Peace on Earth\u2019 anyway having a timeless quality, there was a reminder to us that its message \u2013 in each generation, and especially at this time \u2013 has ongoing significance and resonance. The poignancy was balanced by the joy of Resurrection \u2013 Venable\u2019s \u2018Easter Song\u2019 providing a glorious climax (his style oft being compared to that of Gerald Finzi).<\/p>\n
The combination of the sensitive piano accompaniment from Sims, together with the glorious rich voice of Madden, blended to pierce the atmosphere: as something of the veil between heaven and earth seemed momentarily lifted.<\/p>\n
The recital brought together both the beauty of sheer simplicity, the sanctity and sanctuary of silence, and the heavenly tones of ethereal music; it took us into a different space and place \u2013 uncluttered from the cacophony of noise and distraction which nowadays seems the norm.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the second part of the performance, Sims provided a simple but moving accompaniment on the organ (Sims\u2019 debut organ performance at a recital). The pair worked particularly well during \u2018Sainte\u2019 \u2013 with gentle interjections from the singer, working together to create beautiful harmonies: almost like a dialogue between tenor and player.<\/p>\n
We finished with some of the most modern pieces: \u2018My Beloved Spake\u2019 (2022) \u2013 to a rich and gorgeous setting; \u2018Shine Forth\u2019 \u2013 written for Edinburgh in 2010; and \u2018The Death of Bede\u2019 (Park) \u2013 still a work in progress\u2026 and only received in its current form on Friday evening\u2026 so about as contemporary as you could get! How delighted we were to hear its premiere and first outing.<\/p>\n
The performance finished at 8.35pm.<\/p>\n
Time in Music is Much, Monday 11th August 2025, St Vincent\u2019s Chapel\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An evening showcasing texts set to music from different contexts and in various styles. Nothing too overstated, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-338893","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-edinburgh","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115016765667941242","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}