Saturday 16 November 2024
St David's Church, Exeter
Rossini was such a tease! His Petite Messe Solennelle was neither little (about the same length as Verdi's Requiem), nor especially solemn.
In addition, its accompaniment of piano and harmonium in the work's original form (which suited its first performance in 1864, with just 12 singers, in the private chapel of a large Parisian house) does place it amongst one of the quirkier of masses, while its undoubted seriousness of purpose is overtaken at times by the sound world of opera – but then Verdi's later piece is too. A well attended audience at St David's Church, Exeter came on 16 November to hear this delightful Sin of Rossini's Old Age performed by the Exeter Festival Chorus under its musical director, Andrea Brown. The work was also a favourite of the EFC's former musical director, the late Nigel Perrin, to whose memory the performance was dedicated; he would have been so pleased with it.
The distinctiveness of the unusual accompaniment of piano (Peter Adcock) and harmonium (Stephen Tanner) was immediately apparent with the stealthy beginning to the opening Kyrie, so much clearer and more atmospheric than Rossini's later orchestral adaptation. Always attentive to the needs of the singers and the work's different musical styles, there was much pleasure to be had in the playing of the two instrumentalists, including Peter Adcock's performance of what was the most curious movement in the Messe, that of the piano piece inserted by Rossini in place of the usual Offertory.
Like Rossini's operas, the Messe offers its four vocal soloists every opportunity to shine. Perhaps the composer favoured the tenor and bass with the most operatic of solos and both Thomas Hobbs and Frederick Long provided rich enjoyment in the 'Dominus Deus' and the 'Quoniam' sections of the Gloria respectively; we can forgive them the smiles on their faces as they each sang their way through the composer's catchy tunes and endless repetitions of the text! The soprano soloist, on the other hand, was presented with rather more restrained opportunities in the 'Crucifixus' of the Credo and the O Salutaris which Emily Vine delivered with affecting simplicity. Alison Kettlewell's mezzo was not to be denied in her big solo moment though, singing the concluding Agnus Dei with religious fervour and operatic intensity. Soloists they might have been, but when they did come together at other times during the course of the work, they presented an admirable balance between the different voices.
If Rossini gave the soloists more operatic opportunities than the chorus, he did at least provide the latter with two choruses, the 'Cum sancto Spiritu' in the Credo and the 'Et resurrexit' in the Gloria, that contained splendid fugues which the EFC dispatched with accuracy and enthusiasm. The pace at which the first of these was taken by Andrea Brown really demonstrated the agility of her singers; the tenors and basses, with fewer numbers than usual (I understand there was some sickness) had to be really on their mettle. Elsewhere in the Messe, choral contributions were sung with a commendable sense of style, dynamics and attention to pitch.
This endearing work was evidently new to a good number of the audience but an overheard remark of 'That was a treat!' seemed to sum up this concert perfectly.
David Batty