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Stars explained: * A production of no real merit
with failings in all areas. ** A production showing evidence of not
enough time or effort, or even talent, and which never breathes any real
life into the piece – or a show lumbered with a terrible script. *** A
good enjoyable show which might have some small flaws but has largely
achieved what it set out to do.**** An excellent show which shows a
great deal of work and stage craft with no noticeable or major
flaws.***** A four star show which has found that extra bit of magic
which lifts theatre to another plane. |
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The Armed Man – a mass
for peace
Phoenix Singers St Francis of Assisi Church, Bournville **** WHATVER the sound of Phoenix when Matt
Beckingham took over as musical director in 2005, they were certainly in
excellent voice as he left nine years later. Karl Jenkin’s Mass for Peace, based on the
Catholic Mass was originally commissioned by the Royal Armouries Museum
to mark the Millennium, and is not the easiest of choral pieces,
particularly for an amateur choir but with the hint of echo from the
plain white walls and vaulted roof of St Francis of Assisi, they gave
their director a magnificent send off. The choir used a large screen as a backdrop with
video images from The Armed Man film showing conflicts in Europe,
Africa, the Far East – in fact anywhere where the armed man has
ventured. It has been estimated that in all of recorded
history there have only been two days when there has been peace
throughout the world, two days free of any war or conflict taking place
somewhere on the planet. The Armed Man opens with L'homme armé, a
French folk song from the 15th century which became a regular
part of the variations of the Latin Mass by a whole host of
Renaissance composers. It is a musical theme which reoccurs in the final
piece. Jenkins encompasses other religions as well,
including the Adhaan, the haunting Islamic call to prayer
performed by Asif Quayum, a Hafiz, or protector, of the Ghamkol Sharif
mosque in Birmingham. There is also Torches, about the suffering
and deaths of animals in war from the Mahabharata, the Sanskrit
epic from ancient India. This is the longest epic poem We experience conflicts past through the words of
John Dryden and Jonathan Swift in Charge opening with trumpets
and drums amid the colour and glory of battle and ending in the screams
of the wounded and dying. That could have ended as a mess but in the
hands of the choir there was still a harmony and purpose to the
dischordant crescendo The most telling section though was Angry
Flames, with words from Japanese poet Toge Sankichi marking the
moment when the world and mankind was changed for ever in Hiroshima.
On 6 August, 1945, US bomber Enola Gay dropped
Little Boy, the world’s first atomic bomb, on the Japanese city and in
an instant 80,000 people were dead and up to a further 60,000 had died
by the end of the year. For those unsure what Einstein’s e=mc2
really means, a mass of just 0.6 grams, two hundredths of an ounce, of
Uranium 235, was turned into energy - heat and light - in the explosion
over Hiroshima. Other sections included Agnus Dei, the
words familiar to any churchgoer, and, fitting, 100 years on from the
outbreak of the First World War, Now the guns have stopped
describes the guilt felt by the survivors from that war to end all wars.
It was written by Guy Wilson, the master of the museum who commissioned
the mass, and who selected the other passages for Jenkins to set to
music. After the Benedictus came Better is
Peace which ended on a note of hope, Praise the Lord. The performance saw solos from Mary Rogers and
Alex STait, who has a beautifully clear voice while te musicianship of
Sara Wilander on piano, Trevor Workman, organ, Helen Edgar on cellow and
Becky Skinner on flute, along with Stephen Plummer and Luke Taylor on
Percussion and Will Morley and Adam Stockbrige, all combined to lift the
performance out of the ordinary. Edgar and Skinner were worth a particular mention
for a lovely duet. The concert marked the handing over of the MD
baton from Beckingham, who is off to Opera North, to new man James
Llewellyn Jones who gave a hint of what is to come with a short
programme starting with Anthem from that much underrated musical
Chess followed by an arrangement of Laurence Binyon’s famous war
poem For the Fallen by Mike Sammes. People of a certain age will
remember the Mike Sammes singers as being fixtures on the BBC Light
Programme and the style was immediately recognisable. A short blast of
Hallelujah, Amen from Handel and then what has become the rugby
world cup anthem World in Union, with Beckingham singing a solo
with his successor singing in the encore. The old adage is that those who can do while
those who can’t teach, but the old and new musical directors displayed
that not only can they teach choral work, they can also sing with voices
any choir would grab with both hands, or a couple of hundred hands in
Phoenix’s case Phoenix has built an impressive reputation as a choir and with performances like this it is easy to see why. Roger Clarke Next performance, Summer Concert, 12 July, 2014,
at The Rudock Performning Arts Centre, Edgbaston |
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ever recorded, incidentally, running to more than 200,000 line and 1.8
million words.