Fernhurst Choral Society return to Chichester Cathedral
Fernhurst Choral Society will be performing Brahms's Requiem in a first return to Chichester Cathedral post-pandemic on Saturday, May 20.
Musical director Tim Ravalde, who is also the assistant organist at Chichester Cathedral, is delighted to be returning with the choir: “Covid made a mess of all our calculations but I think this is our third visit. We were getting into a good rhythm of going every two or three years but I think now the last visit was something like 2018. It is fantastic to go there because it is such a remarkable building in which to make music. It is an amazing building but it is also a brilliant experience to perform there. I can easily take it for granted but I very much try not to because it is such a special place to be.
“Music in Chichester Cathedral just travels beautifully. For whatever reason Chichester is a lot better than many of our cathedrals in that respect. I think we were just very lucky when it was built. Some of our large ancient churches are so resonant that you lose detail. You can count the echo in seconds. You might even need more than two hands to do it. They are so resonant that you're still hearing the bar before while you're playing the next one. But on the other hand some of our ancient churches are so dry that it just feels cold. You need something in the middle and Chichester is just perfect in that respect.
“We know that singing in the cathedral is an occasion for us. It is something special that we just don't do every year and we know that we want to be at our best. We want to really fill the place and we want our singing to sound absolutely glorious.”
The good news is that the choir is in an excellent place: “We are getting ourselves back to pre-pandemic numbers with the choir which is really good. We've had a recruitment drive in the last few months and it has worked. People are coming back and new people are joining us. There are a lot of new faces in the choir which is great. And I do think that the choir is sounding better than it ever has in my time. I'm just coming to the end of my 12th year. We did sing the Brahms’s Requiem 11 or ten years ago and it is a lot, lot better now. We are much more comfortable with it which was not entirely true the last time!
“The piece is hard. It is demanding. In places it is chromatic and it is fast and it is high and it's therefore tiring. The soloists don't take a huge amount of pressure off the chorus. There some works where the soloists allow you to sit down for ten minutes but that's not the case with this one. And in amongst all that you have to remember that it is some of the most expressive and beautiful music ever written. You also have to find that spiritual depth. It's a tall order but they're singing so remarkably well at the moment that it is quite difficult to remember just how demanding the piece is at times.”
Tickets available via Chichester Cathedral website, by phone on 01730 815708 or on the door.