The rarity value of a team of dedicated amateurs assured the Royal SNO
chorus of large audiences in the Far East, as Keith Bruce discovers.
ROYAL SNO Chorusmaster Christopher Bell has a theory to explain the
lack of any large choir in Hong Kong. ''It is because of the way of life
of the Chinese people in Hong Kong. They live to eat, sleep, and make
money. It is very difficult to get them to rehearsals.''
That rarity value assured the chorus of a warm welcome and large
audiences during its eight-day sojourn to the British protectorate, the
culmination of the choir's 150th anniversary celebrations.
''There are no choirs of our size and status working in that part of
the world so it was a fundamentally new experience for most of the
audience,'' said Bell. ''But the idea of a group of dedicated amateurs
meeting weekly to rehearse to the highest standard was also foreign to
them.''
Audiences, according to Bell, were more or less evenly split between
Chinese and expats, and the singers found they had advantages in their
common nationality with some of the latter. The fund-raising effort for
the tour was significantly eased by the reduction of the rate they were
paying at the Hilton Hotel to one-third of normal. The manager, James
Smith, is -- of course -- a Scot.
Considerable enthusiasm for the visit had also been generated by three
Scots players in the Hong Kong Philharmonic: trumpeters Brian Thompson
and Laurie Gargan and second oboe Ann Rankine. The choir sang the Faure
Requiem and Verdi's Te Deum with the orchestra, under its principal
conductor David Atherton, in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre.
The orchestra is managed by Stephen Crabtree, a former principal
double bass with the SNO, who was ecstatic after the performances, which
featured soloists soprano Patrizia Kwella and baritone Stephen Roberts
and were recorded for the local classical radio network. ''This is what
I've waited to hear in this hall,'' he said. ''We just don't hear that
sound in Hong Kong.''
Underlining quite what a new experience a big choir is for local
musicians was a performance -- conducted by Bell himself -- of Handel's
Messiah, that most-performed of works in the choral repertoire which the
choir was formed to sing 150 years ago.
The concert closed the summer festival of the Academy of Performing
Arts and was the first time the orchestra and singers from the college
had performed the work. It had a cast of 20 soloists, some singing only
one recitative or aria, and Bell worked with each of them and with the
band, to give them a sense of the style of the work.
Although the students were studying Western music, they had little
feel for a large-scale choral piece, but the results, said Bell, were
fresh and vibrant.
''A lot of the members of the choir felt that particular Messiah had a
particularly sensitive appeal -- it was really quite poignant.''
In a very full programme, the chorus also split into two choirs for
Sunday appearances at St John's Cathedral, where the Anglican
congregation heard Mozart's Coronation mass and two Rachmaninov Vespers,
and at the Presbyterian Union Church (also celebrating its 150th year)
for a programme of John Taverner and Scots songs.
Bell paid tribute to the organisation of the trip by choir members,
who also funded part of the cost of the visit themselves. There were no
problems except for those caused by the weather -- the heat and humidity
claiming a few casualties.
That apart, the only mishap was the predictable missing luggage on
return to Glasgow. The chorusmaster did not reveal whether one of the
victims was the woman with some 67 kilograms of baggage.
''She went out with four cases and returned with seven. I think she
must have her wardrobe organised for the next six months,'' said Bell.
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