The Three Choirs Festival launched at Gloucester Cathedral with a packed crowd and an exhilarating program. The opening concert featured the UK premiere of Gavin Higgins' Fanfare Americana, Elgar's First Symphony, and a joyful rendition of Walton's Belshazzar's Feast.
Fanfare Americana: Exuberant Fireworks
Higgins' Fanfare Americana opened the evening, a likable work celebrating the can-do attitude prevalent in the US. Whooping brass and tubular bells propelled vast sounds into the resonant cathedral acoustic, exploding like exuberant fireworks. Adrian Partington led the Philharmonia Orchestra in a delightfully Tiggerish account.
Elgar's First Symphony: Noble Tread and Edwardian Fire
The noble tread of Elgar's First Symphony brought matters down to earth, though the music took time to settle. The opening movement might have benefited from greater elasticity, and tempo changes needed more time to breathe. It was exhilarating nonetheless, as was the scherzo, which ran the gamut from elfin filigree to Darth Vader-ish menace. A warm, yet unsentimental Adagio preceded a brisk finale with plenty of Edwardian fire in its belly.
Belshazzar's Feast: A Triumph for the Festival Chorus
The evening belonged to the 141-strong Festival Chorus, who delivered Walton's cantata with discipline, diction, and considerable clarity of intent. Blend and balance were highly impressive for what is essentially three choirs thrown together as one, with inner parts and intricate intertwining lines invariably distinct. The male voices aced it in their forceful opening salvo, with female voices joining to pour their hearts out by the waters of Babylon.
David Stout injected theatricality and a rare humanity into the baritone solos, his stentorian tones leading choir and orchestra into a "Praise ye the Gods" section that built to a terrific percussion-riddled hullabaloo. Partington adopted an ideally flexible approach, drawing out the grinding dissonances in "Thou, O King, art King of Kings" and bringing a crackling energy to the concluding hymn of praise. As noises go, this one was joyful indeed.
The Three Choirs festival continues until 1 August.
