Grand, moving and a touch eccentric
Virtual Choral Evensong Rodolfus Foundation
In these disquieting times, it’s natural to turn to things which have endured for centuries. The Choral Evensong of the Anglican Church is just such a thing. The liturgy has its origins in the Book of Common Prayer, and over the centuries it has acquired numerous musical adornments, which mysteriously coalesce into a whole even though they were composed centuries apart.
The Rodolfus Foundation streamed a Virtual Choral Evensong on Tuesday, which cleaved firmly to the ancient form of the rite, and must have come as a soothing balm to all the many worshippers deprived of it during the lockdown. Some churches have been broadcasting services from clerics’ front rooms, and some church choirs have risen to the challenge of recording performances remotely.
The Virtual Evensong offered something similar, but on a different level of technical sophistication, musical splendour – and celebrity firepower. The aim was to raise funds for the foundation itself, which runs residential singing courses and a youth choir, and the Cathedral Choirs’ Emergency Fund, which aims to raise £1million to help church choirs on the brink of collapse.
The service was topped and tailed by a charming electronic fantasy on birdsong, videovery recorded among the bluebells and trees of an English wood. There were opening and closing organ voluntaries, both by Bach, 16thcentury choral settings of the liturgy from Thomas Tallis, William Smith and the great Spanish composer Victoria, and 19th- and early-20thcentury settings by Elgar and George Dyson. The performances were stitched together from more than 260 video recordings sent in by singers young and old, from 20 countries, bolstered here and there by eight singers of the terrific young vocal ensemble Voces8. Obviously, we couldn’t see all 260 singers, but thanks to the wizardry of digital video editing we could see up to 30 at any given moment, in a honeycomb of tiny images. It was peculiarly touching to see all these individuals in their bedrooms or at the kitchen table, singing their hearts out, while our ears registered something completely different: a convincing simulacrum of a genuine choral sound (all hail to the sound and video editors Alexander James and Matthew Norriss).
In between the vocal numbers were two lessons, read by Stephen Fry and Simon Russell Beale, the latter seated outside next to a country parish church, so the sound of birdsong could be heard mingled with Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians. The Rev Richard Coles, of Strictly
Come Dancing fame, offered prayers, as did three young women representing Islam, Christianity and Judaism.
Everyone rose magnificently to the occasion, though one or two individuals stood out, above all Rebecca Leggett, who sang the Cantor’s lines in William Smith’s Responses with touching grace and beauty. The highlight of the massed musical performances was Parry’s grand coronation anthem I Was Glad, which had an unusual crystal clarity. In all it was grand, moving, and a touch eccentric in a very English way.