Newsletter issue 26 by Fantastic Media

to uphold and continually renew a proud tradition of choral singing

Newsletter Issue 26 Welcome to this autumn 2017 edition of the HCS Newsletter Photo: David Ward

‘you swing to the left and then you swing to the right’ As I look back six months to the spring edition of this newsletter it is absolutely amazing to think of all that has happened in that time. In late May/ early June we had the tour to Toronto and three fabulous concerts; on 8 July we were in Gloucester Cathedral for performances of Holst, Hymn of Jesus and Vaughan Williams, A Sea Symphony; the new season started at the beginning of September on our new rehearsal night of Tuesday and at the end of the month we had a very successful open rehearsal with over 30 guest singers, most of whom expressed an interest in joining the choir. We have had audition sessions and details of those admitted are shown in the Membership News section of the Newsletter. We have other people currently sitting in and awaiting an audition date.

We are delighted to have appointed a new vocal coach, Joyce Tindsley, who is now taking the pre rehearsal warm ups as well as having one to one (or two or three) sessions with choir members prior to or during the first half of rehearsal. Having already benefitted from one of these sessions myself, I think it is wonderful that the Society is investing time and money into the technical development of its members.

AUTUMN 2017

However what a night it was with a packed Town Hall giving a rousing reception to a superb performance of Haydn’s masterpiece. Laurence Cummings brought all his expertise of early Music to the fore and the choir responded to his brisk tempi with aplomb. A superb trio of soloists, Mary Bevan, Anthony Gregory and Henry Waddington and the fantastic playing of the Royal Northern Sinfonia all added up to a night that will live long in the memory. The Society is delighted to have set up a new business network in the town called Business Voice. There are currently 15 members with an expected number of twenty plus as we move into the first full year of the venture. You can read much more about this and many other features on the following pages. The front page photograph shows singers at the open rehearsal in the Town Hall being led through a physical warm up by our choral director Gregory Batsleer. STEPHEN BROOK Editor

In mid October the Society was delighted to receive the Yorkshire Award in the Arts and Entertainment category on a glittering evening at the Hilton Hotel in Leeds. As you are reading this our first concert of the season Haydn, The Creation has been and gone.

Elgar Caractacus Op.35

Photo: Wikipedia

The British Camp at Herefordshire Beacon that could be seen from Elgar’s mother’s home Our Music Director Martyn Brabbins will once again be at the podium for next April’s subscriber concert when we will be presenting our first (and probably Huddersfield’s first) performance of Elgar’s dramatic cantata Caractacus. Along with the Orchestra of Opera North, we will also be making a commercial recording of the work during the same week, such that by the date of the concert - Friday 13th - we trust that nothing could possibly go awry and that an exceptional musical experience awaits our listeners (assuming everyone remembers the 7.00pm start time. You may also wish to note the finishing time of 9.00pm this is to allow for a ‘patching session’ until 10.00pm, in case we need to tidy up any ‘loose ends’ - so please be prepared to vacate the hall promptly… unless you’re singing!) Some of our members and subscribers may recall that during Martyn Brabbins’ earlier incarnation as Principal Conductor of the Society, one of his aims was to direct performances of Elgar’s three great oratorios Gerontius, The Apostles and The Kingdom - during their centenary years, which duly happened in 2000, 2003 and 2006. However Caractacus does not fit in with this neat anniversary cycle, as it has taken us almost 120 years to programme the work since its première. Choral commissions for provincial music festivals kept Elgar very busy during much of the 1890s, whilst he was trying to establish himself

as the foremost British composer of his generation: The Black Knight and The Light of Life (Worcester 1893 & 1896) and King Olaf (Hanley 1896) presumably encouraging the Leeds Festival Committee to invite him to compose a large-scale work for their forthcoming Triennial Festival in October 1898. The story of Caractacus takes place in about AD 50 and is largely set in and around the Malvern Hills close to Elgar’s Worcestershire home. The tale was suggested during a visit to Elgar’s mother, Ann, who was musing on the view of the earthworks of the ‘British Camp’ atop the Herefordshire Beacon which were clearly visible from Colwall, where she was staying in early August 1897. Local tradition maintained that the British Chieftain Caractacus had made his last stand against the invading Roman legions in this area, so it’s quite easy to understand the appeal of this legend to Elgar’s deeply-felt attachment to the wooded landscapes of his native county and the artistic inspiration he found there. Almost the only known facts about Caractacus come from the classical works of Dio Cassius and Tacitus, which merely relate his leadership of the British tribes up to their final defeat in battle and his subsequent transportation to Rome, where the Emperor Claudius, moved by his eloquence, spares his life to see out his days in the Eternal City with his family.

13 April 2018

To elaborate this into a dramatic narrative, Elgar approached H.A. Acworth, a retired neighbour of some poetic experience and with whom he had recently collaborated on the adaptation of Longfellow’s The Saga of King Olaf. Elgar arranged the resulting libretto into a sequence of six scenes, each of which he sets as a continuous flow of musical invention, resulting in the largest structures he had so far created and which he bound together by ‘representative themes’ in the manner of Wagner, but with his own distinctive musical language. The most familiar music for many listeners is the final scene’s opening Triumphal March as the captured Britons are paraded through Rome. However, following closely on from Queen Victoria’s 1897 Jubilee and in view of the imperialistic mood of the period, it would have been unthinkable to end the work on such a note of British defeat, so Elgar suggested to his worder [librettist] that he might ‘dabble in patriotism in the Finale, when lo!...instead of merely paddling his feet goes & gets naked & wallows in it…’: Acworth’s solution is to evoke the future when Rome ‘Is crumbled into clay’ whilst ‘The nations all shall stand / And hymn the praise of Britain.’ Despite the ‘immediate and decisive’ success which The Times reported from that first performance in Leeds, Caractacus has often been overlooked subsequently, in comparison to his later works, rather than being recognised as a fully mature work of often outstandingly effective vocal and, above all, orchestral writing. It is apposite to note that his next Opus 36 - was conceived later in the same month of the Leeds concert, as his wife Alice interrupted his dreamy piano improvising at the end of another tedious day by commenting ‘Edward, that’s a good tune.’ The ‘tune’ became the basis for a novel set of orchestral variations, known to us as the Enigma Variations which, following its London première in June 1899, firmly established Elgar as the greatest British composer since Purcell. Malcolm Hinchliffe

DO YOU REMEMBER... - 40? Friday 4 November 1977 Chorale Variations on Vom Himmel Hoch - Bach/Stravinsky Symphony of Psalms - Stravinsky Pavane - Faure Requiem - Faure BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra Simon Rattle – Conductor Jennifer Smith – Soprano Michael Rippon – Baritone Writing in the Huddersfield Examiner, Malcolm Cruise stated... Simon Rattle, who conducted Friday night’s concert, is, at 22 the youngest conductor ever to direct a concert of the Society…… Psalms 39, 40 and 150 form the Symphony of Psalms and here we had a weighty chorus and the brass, lower strings of the orchestra and two pianos. There was much magnificence, especially with the insistently rhythmical sections of the final movement…… The main work of the evening was Faure’s Requiem. The flow of the Sanctus, the magnificence and majesty of the Dies Irae and the ethereal quality of tone in In Paradisum made this a fine performance. In the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Year, it seemed a pity that the National Anthem was omitted at the start of the concert. Sydney Crowther in the Yorkshire Post stated... Mr. Battle (sic) secured a splendid driving force in the opening movement (Symphony of Psalms). The choir had a superb attack and when the nature of the tensions changed in the Laudate the singing still had complete authority. The evening was completed by a contrasting masterpiece, Faure’s Requiem. Mr. Battle (sic again) secured some lovely pianissimo singing, which gained in effect because of the well studied gradation of tone. In a rare visit the Daily Telegraph critic, Paul Dewhirst wrote... The Requiem received the more uniformly successful performance; judiciously paced and shaped with affection which never degenerated into sentimentality. The Choral Society responded with much expressive and finely moulded singing….. In the Stravinsky, they sounded at times marginally less secure. The soprano line was not always clearly defined in the Laudate Eum. The marvellous closing section of the entire work did not, perhaps exercise its full hypnotic power, but elsewhere in Psalm 150 there was much to admire.

Cutting down on paper and postage The Society is trying to reduce its costs, both monetarily and environmentally, by sending out fewer paper copies of the newsletter. If you would be willing to receive the newsletter by email from now on, please send your name, address and category (ie Associate Member, Subscriber, Sponsor or Friend) to our editor, Stephen Brook @ stephen.brook1@ntlworld.com NB. If you have already informed us due to reading this in a previous edition, there is no need to get in touch again.

FINANCIAL SUPPORT The Society is deeply grateful to all our Partners, Sponsors and Patrons for the help that they give us to support our work in bringing high quality music making to our town, our country and occasionally the world. This season we are being supported by: CONCERT SPONSORS Country Classics (R.Gledhill & Sons) Investec Wealth and Investment Ltd. Brewin Dolphin W. Currie & Friends Julie Kenny CBE Helen Marshall Jean Parker PATRONS Elizabeth Crowther OBE Mrs. Diana Franklin J. Donald Haywood DL Gerald and Christina Sutton Jane and Alan Pridmore Richard Adkinson Wilkinson Building Co (Leeds) Ltd SS Components Brenda Mosley John and Ann Denham Neil and Judith Charlesworth PATRONS – HONORARY Joanne Harris MBE Dame Ingrid Roscoe Alan Titchmarsh MBE Sir John Tomlinson Dame Felicity Lott BUSINESS VOICE MEMBERS The University of Huddersfield Syngenta Handelsbanken Hoyer UK The Woodman Inn KSDL Huddersfield Giants RLFC Halo CleanTech Chadwick Lawrence LLP Thornhill Estates The Sekhon Group Revell Ward LLP Fantastic Media John L Brierley Ltd Harron Homes

Photos: Ruth Bostock

The

Four Seasons Supper Club

The most recent meeting of the Supper Club was held at Guest Dining, Farnley Tyas. We were entertained by Anne Wilkes (Soprano), accompanied by her father, Tim, Tania Jacquier (Trombone) and John Harman (Bass) who led the room in a spirited rendition of Pratty Flowers. The photographs show some the musical line up and some of the members. For further details and application form please contact Helen Marshall on 07718746085 or email helenfenay@aol.com

Members News New Members We welcome thirteen new members into the Society:

We wish them great success and enjoyment with the Society and hope that their stay with us will be a long and happy one. Philip Shergold Many members will be aware that Second Tenor, Philip Shergold, suffered a massive stroke in June. Philip was in hospital for three months before being released to a nursing home. He is now being looked after at the Aden House nursing home in Clayton West. He is totally paralysed on his right hand side and has almost no speech.

Sad Farewells Former long serving 1st Bass, Melvin Rawnsley passed away in October. Melvin served the Society as Librarian in the 1970s and on a number of social occasions entertained us with his wonderful humour. We pass on our condolences to his family and friends.

service. Many congratulations and we look forward to your continuing contributions to the Society. Gareth and his wife, Charmaine, who bet him to the silver salver by two years, have taken the occasion of their joint 100 year service milestone to retire from singing with the Society. Photo: David Ward

Joanna Cross, Pamela Moore and Lindsey Rosser – 2nd Sopranos, Christine Alp, Lucy Bacon, Alice Barford, Mollie Davison and Nicola Smith – 1st Contraltos, Ruth Cole and Ruth Robertson – 2nd Contraltos, Robert Sutcliffe – 2nd Tenor, Alex Davis – 1st Bass and Sam Carr 2nd Bass.

Bass, Richard Thompson has known Philip through singing with him in other choirs and is visiting him on a regular basis. With all our hearts we wish Philip all the best that is possible.

Long Service The Society is deeply grateful to all those members who give of their talents over such long periods of time. They provide a firm foundation onto which those that are able to join us for only a few years can add their valuable contributions. There have been three presentations in the past six months, to Gareth Beaumont, 1st Bass, who received a silver salver on achieving 50years service, Michael Benn, 1st Tenor for 40 years’ service and Margaret Collison, 2nd Contralto for 25 years’

They are pictured on the occasion of Gareth’s presentation, with the President.

BUSINESS VOICE In September of this year the Society launched a new business network in Huddersfield, BUSINESS VOICE, to work together with local companies and organisations for the promotion of the town and surrounding area, bringing business, culture and education together. Business Voice is now recruiting for 2018 to add to the impressive list of existing members: SYNGENTA, HOYER UK, HANDELSBANKEN, THE UNIVERSITY OF HUDDERSFIELD, KIRKLEES STADIUM DEVELOPMENT LTD, HUDDERSFIELD GIANTS, REVELL WARD LLP, HALO CLEAN TECH LTD, CHADWICK LAWRENCE LLP, THORNHILL ESTATES, JOHN L BRIERLEY LTD, FANTASTIC MEDIA, HARRON HOMES, the WOODMAN INN and the SEKHON GROUP Members benefit from being part of a forum of Huddersfield business leaders, with the opportunity to network with peers who all share the same brand values and the same interest in increasing the visibility and reputation of the town and its environs. The first meeting of the group was held at the University on 4 October when Prof. Liz Towns Andrews spoke about the Government’s Industrial Strategy and the opportunities within it for the Huddersfield area. Twenty members and prospective members were present in addition to four officers of the Society. The next formal meeting of the group will be on Wednesday 14 February when, at a breakfast meeting, the business leaders will have the opportunity to meet the professional musicians in charge of the Choral Society and its Youth Choirs. Gregory Batsleer and Alison North will speak about their hopes, plans and ambitions for the future development of the choirs.

About the HOYER Group: The HOYER Group, an independent family business, headquartered in Hamburg Germany, has been one of the world’s leading bulk logistics providers since 1946. A specialist in the national and international movement of bulk liquids, powders and gases, it provides sophisticated logistics for the chemical, food, gas and petroleum industries.

HOYER in the UK: HOYER has run operations in the UK since 1974 and has now established itself as the market leader in nationwide fuel distribution with significant domestic and international operations for customers in the bitumen, chemicals, foodstuffs and airgas markets, including some of the most demanding blue chip customers in the world. HOYER is recognised in the UK as being an industry leader in safety management, handling a wide range

Huddersfield continues to be the base for Hoyer’s UK headquarters and Operations Control Centre where almost 200 people are employed, directing some 1450 people and 500 vehicles deployed across 35 locations. We have been here since 1977 as Huddersfield is ideally located in the centre of the industrial heartland of the North. Our links with the Huddersfield University Business School and Kirklees College help to provide us with an important pipeline of talented young people looking to get their career going in business and management. Despite being an important employer of almost 1500 people the majority of those people are based in other operating locations across the country, especially in the Midlands around Birmingham and in the South East around London. This has meant that our business links in the local community are not as strong or well developed as might be imagined. We are therefore keen to establish better connections with key business

It is the intention that in each issue of this newsletter one of the members of Business Voice will be invited to submit an article giving a pen picture of their organisation. We are delighted that Hoyer UK have agreed to provide the first of these and we thank Mark Binns for his contribution.

Huddersfield Choral Society’s Business Network

stakeholders and believe that Business Voice will help us to achieve this. The Choral Society, together with the mighty terriers, are the two flagship sources of high quality entertainment in the Town that help to spread the Huddersfield Brand far and wide. We are very pleased to support HCS at a time when choirs are enjoying a resurgence in popularity and hope that a different pipeline of younger people can be encouraged to both join to sing and to buy tickets to listen to a vibrant and more modern and accessible choral and musical programme that will enable the choir to continue to entertain and to sustain itself into the long term. Mark Binns

With some 6,100 employees, based in more than 115 countries, HOYER owns around 37,200 tank containers, 2,900 road tankers, 2,400 trucks, 27,200 Intermediate Bulk Containers working out of numerous operational sites.

of hazardous goods, so that safety is the number one priority for everyone across the business.

BV members are also to be invited to share in a Drinks and Canapes evening in the Old Court Room of the Town Hall from 5.30pm on Thursday 7 December. After socialising the members will be invited to take a seat in the concert hall to watch and listen to part of the rehearsal for the Society’s Christmas Concert the following evening.

The

Nashville Fords…The Lees… and HCS

Whilst in Toronto our Treasurer, Adrian Lee and his wife, Elaine renewed a long standing friendship with David and Linda Ford. David takes up the story… What a sheer joy to visit face-to-face once again with our dear friends Adrian and Elaine Lee in Toronto during the HCS visit there. It was worth every challenging mile of the long drive up and back from our home in Nashville, TN (roughly 800 miles each way!) My love of The Huddersfield Choral Society began ages ago when I fell in love with the sounds of ELIJAH as performed by HCS. The double album of 12” 78 rpm records was such fun to pile on the “record player” and hear…again and again. I must have begun serious listening before I was even a teenager. By the time I got around to learning the role it seemed like I’d known it forever. Eventually, I sang over 200 performances of ELIJAH as the old prophet himself, and it was the 1948 version by HCS that still rings in my memory of how it should be done. By the late 1990s I had gotten involved with a fine local ensemble, The Concert Chorale of Nashville (CCN). When seeking good material for us to perform, I recalled the beautiful rendition of Kwm Bayah that HCS had performed in that fantastic Christmas program for Yorkshire Television at Ripon Cathedral. So, I found the HCS website and emailed an inquiry about how to obtain that particular version.

When Linda and I made another trip to Yorkshire soon thereafter, the Lees and Adrian and Rachel Withill treated us and our travel pals, Jerry and Mary Jo Jones, to a glorious dinner at the Crab and Lobster near Thirsk to say “thank you” to us. That helped to cement what has become a wonderful friendship, especially with Adrian and Elaine. On that same trip, we attended the HCS recording of ELIJAH excerpts at Marsden for the BBC, along with David Hope, the Archbishop of York. What a treat…for us. We learned last year of the probable trip to Toronto and began to make plans to get there for a visit. Getting to enjoy the HCS Belshazzar’s Feast at Roy Thomson Hall was certainly a highlight. We’ve since read of the critical successes you enjoyed there along with their Mendelssohn Choir and TSO. Toronto with Adrian and Elaine was beyond wonderful. We have grown to love them like an extension to our family. Thank you HCS for making the Toronto trip. It was one of the most memorable experiences of our lives as a direct result. David Ford

Thank you HCS for making the Toronto trip Adrian refreshed my memory while in Toronto, that it was Adrian Withill who handled my inquiry and that they conspired to provide a copy for CCN to use for performance. Soon thereafter, Adrian Lee (as President of HCS) contacted me to assist the faltering plans for a US tour to Florida by the HCS Youth Choir. We enjoyed finally meeting Janet Brook, their then Chairman, in Toronto. I made a few inquiries and the Youth tour was properly filled and turned out to be a good success.

The Fords and the Lees with former Youth Choir Chairman, Janet Brook

Photos: Adrian Lee

CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL On 8 July the Society was delighted to be performing in Gloucester Cathedral for the first time as part of the Cheltenham Festival. Our Music Director, Martyn Brabbins, was on the podium for performances of Holst – Hymn of Jesus and Vaughan Williams – A Sea Symphony. The concert was played out in front of a packed and attentive audience and received a rousing reception. We were accompanied by the Salomon

IN THE LOOP In this section we will aim to keep everyone up to date with the many facets of the Society’s work. CONCERTS Details of all our concerts up to next summer, are shown in the Diary section. We are very pleased that recording company, Hyperion, have agreed to record our spring concert, Elgar Caractacus for CD release. Despite making a number of recordings in recent years, this will be the first recording of a major repertoire piece since the Jane Glover Messiah. Subscribers should note that due to the requirement of a patching session after the performance to iron out any small flaws in the recording, the concert will commence at 7pm, also resulting in an earlier start for the preconcert talk at 6.10pm. We are very pleased to be joining our friends in the Huddersfield Philharmonic Orchestra for a performance of Walton Belshazzar’s Feast. This will be held on Saturday 28 April 2018 in the Town Hall.

Orchestra with Elizabeth Watts and Roddy Williams as soloists in the Sea Symphony. Whilst very enjoyable the day raised some familiar problems, particularly for those travelling by coach. An accident on the M42 on the outward journey resulted in a later than expected arrival, which compounded itself after the concert as the coach drivers could not set off until they had completed their statutory nine hour break. This resulted in a large number of choir members standing by the roadside waiting for something to happen and even receiving a visit from the local constabulary to ascertain what was going on.

BBC PROMENADE CONCERT The Society is delighted to have been invited to appear at the 2018 BBC Proms. However that is all we can tell you at present. We are asked to keep details under wraps until such time as the BBC wish to start their publicity machine. Full details in the next issue. WORKING WEEKEND In spring 2015 we had a very successful weekend at the Crown Hotel in Harrogate and we have decided to replicate that next year. We will start work on our summer and autumn musical programme on Friday evening 18 May and continue on the Saturday and Sunday. Hopefully we will be able to include an open rehearsal to encourage potential new members from a slightly different area. SPRING/SUMMER 2018 We are currently in negotiations about three possible engagements for the spring/summer period. Some, all or none of these may come to fruition although to do all three is very unlikely due to the closeness of the dates. Again, more news later.

The cathedral itself is a magnificent building, although at present one might be tempted to say it will be superb when it is finished. This relates not to the fabric of course but the surrounds which are undergoing landscaping, with new walkways and gardens. It is however one of the rewards of membership of our society that we get to sing in many varied venues, all of which add to our list of great experiences. We must once again thank Martyn Brabbins for expediting this invitation and for his continued support for the Society. Stephen Brook

PROFESSIONAL ADMINISTRATION You may have read in the press or on our website that the Society is looking to appoint a professional administrator to take over significant amounts of work currently dealt with by the General Secretary and other Officers. The workload for our voIunteer Officers and Committee members was becoming untenable. We are very fortunate to be in a position to do this due to the support that we receive from our concert sponsors, patrons, programme advertisers and now, our Business Voice members. NEW COMMITTEE MEMBERS At the Annual General Meeting in July we were pleased to welcome Angus Pogson as a bass representative onto the Committee and more recently delighted that soprano, Helen Martin has joined us, most particularly as we have been without a soprano representative since the AGM. We thank Ruth Bostock and Jane Williamson, who both retired from Committee in the summer for their valuable work.

The Huddersfield Choral Society tour to Canada May 28th – June 5th 2017 Photos: Adrian Lee

After the performance in the Roy Thompson Hall It was with great excitement that we embarked on our first tour of Canada. This was my first “away” tour since Japan in 2007 as all the others since had fallen in term time (the downside of being a teacher…). Luckily, this one fell mainly in the half term holiday so I was able to go. About 70 of us had a smooth journey from Manchester via Toronto to Niagara, staying at the Hilton Hotel for two nights. For many of us, the first full day of the Choral tour was overshadowed somewhat by the exploits of a football team nearer to home. Huddersfield Town were playing Reading in the Championship Play-off Final at Wembley, Niagara time 10am on the Monday morning. After much negotiation, the lovely bar manager Andrew agreed to open the bar room two hours early and put on the big screen TVs so those of us who were interested, about 30 of us, could watch the match. He even kept us supplied with refreshing bottled water to cool our agitation, before the bar finally opened at midday! Thankfully, Huddersfield Town got the party started in style by winning after extra time and penalties and achieving promotion to the Premier League for the first time in their history. As we celebrated with liquid other than water, bemused choristers returned to the hotel and mentioned that they had seen a spectacular waterfall down the road – and indeed it is. After an

Rehearsing in Yorkminster Park Baptist Church

enjoyable afternoon’s sightseeing, we returned to the hotel to perform a flash mob Hallelujah Chorus in the foyer, much to the delight of the onlookers. The evening ended in spectacular style with a fireworks display over the Niagara River at the base of the falls to celebrate their Veterans’ Day, but it felt as though the Canadians were celebrating Huddersfield Town’s marvellous success with us. A good start to the Choral tour! The next day saw us travel to Toronto via the quaint town of Niagara-on-theLake to start our Choral tour properly. We stayed at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel, handily located just off Nathan Phillips Square (the site of the recent Invictus Games wheelchair tennis), for six nights. The holiday was over and the hard work just beginning! We were going to perform three concerts in Toronto over the following weekend, two at the Roy Thomson Hall and one at the Yorkminster Park Baptist Church. Most of us walked to the nearby Roy Thomson Hall for our first rehearsal with Sir Andrew Davis and our hosts, the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. Roy Thomson Hall is a magnificent concert hall, seating 2,630, looking like a spaceship nestled between the skyscrapers of downtown Toronto. It was opened in 1982 with its inaugural concert being performed by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. And 25 years later, we were going to join

forces with them! Sir Andrew Davis is an English conductor who is based in Chicago; he has an impressive CV and his work takes him all over the world. He is currently the Conductor Laureate of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and was previously their Principal Conductor, and so is very much at home in Toronto. The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir was founded in 1894 and is now one of Canada’s best known choirs, performing a mix of sacred and secular works. They have a rather complicated structure, with a professional core of 20 singers called the Elora Singers and about 70 of the 130-strong Toronto Mendelssohn Choir also comprise the Mendelssohn Singers. This effectively means that the organisation as a whole, led by their Artistic Director and Conductor Noel Edison, is very busy and performs about 15 concerts per year. I think it is fair to say that we were surprised by the amount of rehearsal time devoted to Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast. We had just performed this for our last subscribers’ concert of the season and were performing it with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir on the Friday and Saturday nights. Surely we just needed to brush up on a few finer points and learn to blend with our hosts? Not so.... Not only did we rehearse on the Tuesday evening, but we effectively rehearsed

and performed it on the Wednesday and Thursday evenings in front of an invited audience of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir’s donors. We were certainly concert ready by the time we performed our concerts on the Friday and Saturday nights. And the reaction of the audience and from the conductor was rapturous! This sounds like a heavy choral schedule so far, but we also had plenty of time to explore this wonderful city. Many of us took the hop-on, hop-off bus tour, sailed around the harbour for the best city views, went up the CN Tower, visited museums and galleries, and shopped in the markets and malls. Toronto is a cosmopolitan city with a rich variety of ethnic and cultural influences, so we were spoiled for choice with bars and restaurants. And such fantastic service! How many restaurants in England would happily give everyone in a large party their own personalised, accurate, bill? We have much to learn….

Our final concert was on the Sunday afternoon at the nearby Yorkminster Park Baptist Church, again with our hosts the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, accompanied by Michael Bloss on the organ. The programme was entitled Choral Splendour and featured music from English composers such as Handel, Elgar and Parry, and Canadian composers who were heavily influenced by these composers, such as Elizabeth Ekholm and Healey Willan (born in England, lived for much of his life in Canada). The concert was broadcast via webcam and is still available to watch on livestream https://livestream.com/ TMChoir/ChoralSplendour. It began with Handel’s Zadok the Priest and ended with Parry’s I Was Glad, with a variety of contributions from each choir showcasing their particular skills. Both Noel Edison and our own Musical Director, Greg Batsleer, spoke movingly about the place of the healing power of music in a fractured

world and dedicated the concert to the victims of the latest atrocities, the bombs and attacks in Manchester and London. Needless to say, the concert was very moving and I know a few of us struggled to hold our emotions in check as we sang. Again, the audience reaction was fantastic and a local reviewer called our performance “joyous, rapturous and glorious”. After the concert, our hosts treated us to a drink at the pub and we finished our Choral tour. Many of us wished we had done this socialising with our hosts at the start of the tour rather than only at the end, but it was a kind gesture and a lovely way to seal our collaboration. After our final day of sightseeing, we flew home on the Monday evening, tired but with a sense of satisfaction at a job well done. Caroline Jones

DO YOU REMEMBER ... - 25? Saturday 31 October 1992 Mass in B Minor – J S Bach Northern Sinfonia Jane Glover – Conductor Gillian Fisher – Soprano Catherine Denley – Mezzo John Mark Ainsley – Tenor Michael George – Bass Adrian Smith reporting for the Huddersfield Examiner stated...

The notion of the Choral Society clomping through Bach’s dancing counterpoint to thick accompaniment as it might have done 30 years ago is, admittedly, resistible. But conductor, Jane Glover and Chorus Master, Brian Kay run matters here now and I would prefer their pragmatism over anyone else’s purism on almost any occasion. The result on Saturday was a fresh, virile performance, coherent in design, often thrilling in effect and with the Huddersfield sound controlled but never impotent. While the account was not blameless – what should have been a fleet dance in the Cum Sancto Spiritu became an unseemly scramble and the Et Resurrexit was more excitable than affirmative – its fluency and strong sense of conviction brought compensating gains.

Photo: Selwyn Green

Purists argue that a body as large as Huddersfield Choral Society (almost 160 voices) has no business tackling Bach’s B Minor Mass: the best evidence suggests that at the time he completed the work his optimum choir was 16 voices. The challenge to Jane Glover and Chorus Master, Brian Kay was, if not actually to prove that the purists are wrong, to show that there are other routes to perfection besides ‘authenticity’. Though they did not entirely succeed, they delivered a performance of considerable stature …..

Robert Cockroft in the Yorkshire Post commented…

The majestic paeans which open the Sanctus, though technically faultless, remained curiously earthbound. Another significant point – it is not often that one complains that the chorus swamps the orchestra, but it happened here. On the other hand, given the Choral’s marvellous control of a sustained pianissimo, its weight of numbers proved decisive in the central passages of the Credo. The rapt stillness of Et Incarnatus and the almost unbearable poignancy of Crucifixus were such as no authentic performance could begin to match.

‘the whole ensemble’

DANIEL GORDON We are very grateful to Daniel, our Accompanist and Deputy Chorus Master for submitting this article. Recently I had the great privilege of visiting Steinway’s Hamburg factory, helping to choose new pianos for Leeds University. The tour was inspiring for the glimpse it provided of the care and craftmanship that lies behind those legendary instruments; also for the self-belief without arrogance; and for the exceptional longevity of their specialists’ skills. A few years ago, I commented on the long history of the Choral and its context. Later, Clare and I totted up the time that our places of education had been operating: it was well over 3 millenia! All humbling stuff. The Steinway trip set me thinking again about this in relation to the Choral: the two are roughly the same age, and both are household names. Can we make any useful comparisons? Of course, accidents of history play a part, and no-one survives without luck as well as talent. (Talking of accidents of history, one of the above educational establishments - not the oldest - was founded as a penance for being rude to a bishop: hardly a grand plan, but 764 years on, the college is still thriving). Perhaps the main factor is obvious - that the quality of one’s “product” is crucial: British choral history shows how that applies to us, too. What about the confidence to do what you believe is right, even if the tides of fashion or expediency are against you - provided your “market” can support that, of course? Institutional confidence might appear to be separate from the boldness with which individual singers project the music in a concert. But does one not flow from the other? I have no magic wands, but for very many years I’ve been aiming to bolster the confidence of others, on top of imparting the technical basis that must underpin it: working with individuals or with a choir, helping them perform with conviction, colour and character, to never hesitate.

From these things follow not just a great experience for our audiences, but for us too: physical and mental freedom, and an immersive engagement, exhilaration even. As a working musician, I’ve been blessed with lots of opportunities to learn and practice these things. But I hope a summary of how a conductor or performance coach builds confidence, (or how I try to do it, anyway!), might help Choral members, as it consists of things we can all do to some extent.

Try to make friends with where you are, and what you’re capable of; be sensible about what to do next: noone is perfect! A chorusmaster must understand and empathise with the singers. Ultimately this is a leader’s responsibility, yes, but even here, any performer in a group will benefit from sympathy from their fellows. All choral singers have some awareness of what’s difficult for singers in another part, for example.

All you have to do is hit the right notes at the right time, and the instrument plays itself A choirmaster or accompanist needs an in-depth understanding of the whole score; a choir member can very much enhance their ability and fulfilment by picking out some of the fundamentals, e.g. basic harmonic structure, where the melodic interest is, etc. Giving singers technical security by isolating difficulties, repeating, putting into context, etc., is an art that I for one am still learning, but in essence it is trying to take an intelligent approach to focussing in on a problem and getting it right whilst remaining fresh: again, something we can all do. Characterisation isn’t rocket science either - the lead comes from the front, but we can all give it some thought when we are preparing the nuts and bolts. Above all, emphasising what you can do, and helping you as well as the audience get the most out of the experience by seeing the wood for the trees and “going for it”, once the technical foundations for that confidence are strong: this too is not the sole preserve of professionals! Choir-trainers should never harangue; but performers shouldn’t harangue themselves. The more you care, the harder it is to avoid this.

At the front, we can gently remind about that, and extend that awareness to the challenges faced elsewhere in the ensemble. During the selections at Steinway, someone complemented my playing (can’t think why). Without thinking, I made a well-worn comment, which turns out to be the final part of a Bach quote. It’s strange to think that Bach wasn’t much celebrated as a composer in his lifetime. But he did have the reputation for being the greatest keyboard player ever. Someone once asked him how on earth he did it. “There’s nothing to it”, he replied. “All you have to do is hit the right notes at the right time, and the instrument plays itself”. What an approach from that icon of music! We all need his humility, alongside utter fearlessness. Whatever the challenges that the Choral will have to nagivate in future, whatever repertoire we take on, whereever we perform, whoever we partner, I feel that the key to our growth and success is the industrious, performing, confidence of us all.

T’S BEEN A BUSY TERM for the Huddersfield Choral Youth Choir this autumn with learning new music and recruiting high on the priority list. We were at the freshers fair at the University of Huddersfield in September giving out Haribo, lanyards and totting up the signatures. Despite taking on some new members over the summer, we’re still on the lookout for young and enthusiastic new members, particularly boys! Preparations are well under way for the choir’s Christmas concert and of course our collaboration with the Choral Society themselves for their Christmas concert. Now in our second year with our new Musical Director, Alison North, we have some exciting new repetoire to share with you over Christmas: Paul Simon’s classic ‘Bridge over troubled water’, ‘Only Water’ written by Enya, Nicky Ryan and Roma Ryan and even a bit of Spanish traditional music with ‘fum fum fum.’ The Young Voices however were in action in the week before October bank holiday sporting their snazzy new uniforms. The young guns were on fine form at the Holmfirth Music Festival finishing first! It’s a fantasic achievement for the Young Voices after their successes earlier this year at the Mrs Sunderland Festival in the Huddersfield Town Hall. It’s also been a busy term for the fundraising side of the choir. A race night, organinsed by Steve and Carole Kain took place this term. Just to explain what a race night is for those that don’t know: A board with six horses on it, each allocated a

number, move along from start to finish. When the number allocated to the horse is turned over, that horse moves one place until there is a winner. Of course if you have backed that horse before the race, you win. There were seven races in all and the competitiveness was reaching sky high levels by the end with so many 50ps on the line. The evening wasn’t just about the fundraising however, the event was great fun for all who attended. Some people even left with some profit in their pockets! We’re also very excited about the impending broadcast of our episode of ‘Creeped out’. For those who can’t remember or didn’t know: A small section of the Youth Choir bussed their way over to Bolton and took part in a day’s filming for a new CBBC show. Now, having heard back from the production team, we know that the show will first be broadcast on Halloween (which is appropriate as the show is going to be spooky viewing). The members of our choir will feature in the fourth episode of the 13-part series which will be broadcast on 21st November at 5pm on the CBBC channel. We’re all very excited about our impending TV appearance. Keep an eye out for choir helper John Moran and MD Alison North making cheeky guest appreances. The acting may not be the finished product but the singing most definitely is.

OUR BRAND NEW UNIFORM OUR CHAMPION YOUNG VOICES MARSHALLS AT OUR RACE NIGHT

THE YORKSHIRE AWARDS The Society was recently nominated for a prestigious award in the Arts and Entertainment category of the Yorkshire Awards. Our President, Margaret Atkinson, attended the awards ceremony along with colleagues from the Choir and Youth Choirs and she has sent these notes of the evening.

On Friday evening 13th October I was delighted to accept the Yorkshire Arts and Entertainment Award on behalf of the Society. On accepting this award we join the ranks of Sir Alan Ayckbourn and the Kaiser Chiefs. Of the nine awards three were presented to Huddersfield people, Ann Hough, a director of Huddersfield Town and Ryan Sidebottom, the recently retired Yorkshire cricketer, as well as ourselves.

It was a great pleasure to have Steve and Carole Kain with us who work tirelessly on behalf of the Youth Choirs. Altogether a wonderful evening and a huge pleasure for me to accept the award on behalf of all associated with the Choral. Margaret

We therefore were classed as the Premier League team. We were given a great reception by all present and many people came to our table and asked about us and our exploits. Our social media experts, Megan Nelson and Felicity Dunk were with us at the event and were tweeting as the evening progressed to keep people up to speed.

The picture shows the President receiving the award from Look North presenter, Harry Gration. Also on stage is Sally Willis from Fantastic Media, who were kind enough to nominate us for the award. Photo: Dexter Media

Diary Tuesday 14 November 2017 – Guest Dining, Farnley Tyas – 12.30pm – 2.30pm Annual Patrons Lunch - Patrons and Business Voice members

Tuesday 19 December 2017 – Huddersfield Town Hall – 7.15pm HCS Concert – Handel : Messiah (Season Tickets ) – Cond. Martyn Brabbins

Sunday 26 November 2017 – St. Stephen’s Church, Lindley – 3pm HCS Youth Choirs – Family Christmas Concert

Wednesday 20 December 2017 – Huddersfield Town Hall – 7.15pm HCS Concert – Handel : Messiah – Cond. Martyn Brabbins

Thursday 7 December 2017 – Old Court Room, Hudds. Town Hall – 5.30pm – 7pm Drinks and Canapes Reception – Patrons and Business Voice members Friday 8 December 2017 – Huddersfield Town Hall – 7.30pm HCS and HCS Youth Choirs – Christmas Concert – Black Dyke Band Sunday 10 December 2017 – Sainsbury’s, Shorehead – 11am – 1pm HCS Youth Choirs – Carol Singing

Wednesday 14 February 2018 – Venue tba – 8am for 8.30am – 10am Business Voice Breakfast Meeting with Gregory Batsleer and Alison North Friday 16 February 2018 – Huddersfield Town Hall – 6pm HCS Youth Choirs – Mrs Sunderland Music Festival Thursday 22 March 2018 – Venue tba HCS Four Seasons Supper Club meeting

Saturday 24 March 2018 – All Hallows Church, Kirkburton – 6pm HCS Youth Choirs – Spring Concert Friday 13 April 2018 – Huddersfield Town Hall – 7pm HCS Concert – Elgar : Caractacus – Cond. Martyn Brabbins (Live recording for CD by Hyperion) Saturday 28 April 2018 – Huddersfield Town Hall – 7.30pm HCS guests in a Huddersfield Philharmonic Orchestra Concert – Walton : Belshazzar’s Feast Friday-Sunday 18-20 May 2018 – Crown Hotel, Harrogate HCS Working weekend Sunday 15 July 2018 – Venue tba – 3pm HCS Youth Choirs – Summer Concert For confirmation and full details of all Youth Choirs concerts please check the HCS Youth Choirs website.