New Year - New Sounds
MIKE WHEELER hopes that a collaboration between the Sitwell Singers and Royal Birmingham Conservatoire will become an annual event
Last year, the Sitwell Singers and conductor Dexter Drown presented a one-hour free concert comprising first performances of works specially written by students from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. It was such a success that they brought the idea back - St John's Church, Derby, UK, 3 February 2025. This time, they decided on a theme, Love, and a selection of texts for the composers to choose from. The composers worked with Howard Skempton and Edmund Hunt, and, like last time, the choir had just four rehearsals to put it all together. As before, each piece was prefaced by a short conversation between Dexter and its composer.
Poster for 'New Year - New Sounds': a free
informal concert by The Sitwell Singers
Michael John Haden's Hymn to Love set part of Chapter 13 from St Paul's letter to the Corinthians. Its unaccompanied opening soprano melody established a meditative atmosphere that was well sustained.
In Permanence of Love Unknown, George Easton took lines from Walter Scott's 'Love as the theme of poets'. commenting before the performance that love 'runs through our humanity'. As it gradually opened up to a full choral texture, both composer and choir showed an impressive control of dynamics.
Jane Austen's novel Persuasion provided the text for Emma Pascoe's None But You, which, she said 'pierced my soul'. Built up in layers, and with a big, sonorous climax, her piece made a particular impression.
There was more Walter Scott, on lines from his 'Love of country' in Kat Farn's Breathe. Kat happily admitted to writing by hand, and said of their piece that 'like a psalm it follows speech-patterns uniformly', a description readily borne out in performance.
Members of The Sitwell Singers performing in New Year - New Sounds
at St John's Church, Derby, UK on 3 February 2025
Joce Compton's Hymn to Aphrodite set a text by the ancient Greek poet Sappho. Since she had not written for choir before, she turned to her own instrument, the guitar, and started by exploring different chords. From this came a work which handled a variety of textures with confidence.
Katharine Jane Longworth's poem 'Summer's End' was Juliana Niu's choice for The Last Night. She commented that she aimed for a sense of continuous development, and the music's steady unfolding bore this out.
Finally came Vato Klemera's Yours and Mine, setting a well-known passage from Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, in which Cathy feels at one with Heathcliff: 'his and mine are the same'. 'I feel naturally in 12/8', he told us, and in the only fast piece in the concert, the influence of traditional music from his Georgian heritage could be heard clearly, right down to the foot-stamps at the end.
Dexter Drown (left) interviews one of the composers
whose works were performed on 3 February 2025
Will this become an annual event? Let's hope.
Copyright © 11 February 2025
Mike Wheeler,
Derby UK
