Britten Sinfonia, Sinfonia Smith Sq. and the Choir of Merton School, Oxford, unite for an exciting and exhilarating live performance concluding with Olivier Messiaen’s Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum.

Messiaen: Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum – Britten Sinfonia, Sinfonia Smith Sq., Nicholas Daniel – St George’s Cathedral, Southwark (Picture: Britten Sinfonia)

Stravinsky: Symphonies of wind devices; Poulenc: Timor et tremor, Vinea mea electa, Tristis est anima mea; Duruflé: Ubi caritas et amor; Stravinsky: Mass; Messiaen: Vocalise-etude, O sacrum convivium, Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum. Choir of Merton School, Oxford, cond. Benjamin Nicholas; Britten Sinfonia, Sinfonia Smith Sq., cond. Nicholas Daniel; St George’s Roman Catholic Cathedral, Southwark, London
Reviewed by Tony Cooper, 30 April 2025

This live performance marked Nicholas Daniel’s remaining efficiency with the Britten Sinfonia as principal oboist, a publish he has held since being one of many founding members of the orchestra in 1992. 

I feel it’s honest to say that this live performance that includes a efficiency of Olivier Messiaen’s monumental work Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum carried out by the Britten Sinfonia, and Sinfonia Smith Sq. with music by Poulenc, Duruflé and Stravinsky with the Choir of Merton School, Oxford, might properly be described as a ‘once-in-a-decade’ musical expertise.  

For certain, an incredible piece, Et exspecto isn’t carried out these days due to the sheer scale of the musical forces required similar to the massive sections of wind and brass (no strings) wanted alongside a unprecedented vary of percussion and ‘knocking’ devices comprising three units of cowbells, three tam-tams and 6 tuned gongs have been a part of the {hardware} in addition to a set of tubular bells all safely within the sturdy and skilful arms of half-a-dozen percussionists aka the ‘Heavy Metallic Boys’.  

Commissioned by the French Minister of Cultural Affairs, André Malraux, to honour the Fallen of the First and Second World Wars, Messiaen conceived the work to be carried out in massive areas similar to church buildings and cathedrals and, certainly, in open-air performances. He discovered inspiration in writing the piece by the countryside of the Hautes-Alpes (a division within the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur area of south-eastern France) and by the imposing pictures of Gothic and Romanesque church buildings. 

‘I really feel that Et exspecto presents a uncommon alternative for an unforgettable musical journey for viewers and performers alike,’ enthused Nicholas Daniel, who performed the work whereas marking his remaining efficiency with the Britten Sinfonia as principal oboist, a publish he has held since being one of many founding members of the orchestra in 1992. 

He additional added: ‘The distinctive soundscape is immense and highly effective and bringing Et exspecto to life within the beautiful environment of Augustus Pugin’s St George’s Cathedral, Southwark, superbly designed within the Gothic type, is a lifetime’s ambition for me. I’m tremendously excited to share this expertise with among the nice musicians within the UK together with the distinctive and gifted younger artists of Sinfonia Smith Sq..’ 

Opening the live performance fell to Stravinsky’s ritualistic Symphonies d’devices à vent (Symphonies of wind devices) devoted to the reminiscence of Debussy who died in 1918. A one-movement, nine-minute work courting from 1920, the première came about in London on 10 June 1921 performed by Serge Koussevitzky. A satisfying and entertaining work all around the woodwind and brass of Britten Sinfonia and Sinfonia Smith Sq. have been discovered to be on tremendously good kind. 

The night’s programme additionally introduced collectively music exploring themes of reflection, loss and hope that includes the Choir of Merton School, Oxford, performed by Benjamin Nicholas, a musician steeped within the English choral custom as he was a long-serving member of Norwich Cathedral Choir the place his father, Michael Nicholas, held the publish of Grasp of Music for an amazing a few years. Choir director of Merton since 2008, Mr Nicholas (who’s additionally principal conductor of the Oxford Bach Choir) turned the primary full-time organist and director of music at Merton in 2012.  

No doubt, Merton’s efficiency of Poulenc’s Quatre motets pour un temps de pénitence (4 penitential motets) written in 1938-39 to Latin texts proved a spotlight of the programme total. Regrettably, solely three of the items have been carried out. 

Nevertheless, the textual content for the primary motet, Timor et tremor (Nice worry and trembling) combines verses from psalms 54 and 30 which Orlando de Lassus additionally set as a motet. The opposite two have been primarily based on responsories for Holy Week: Vinea mea electa (Vine that I beloved as my very own), a responsory for the matins on Good Friday and Tristis est anima mea (Unhappy is my soul and sorrowful), the second responsory of the Tenebrae service of Maundy Thursday depicting Christ’s Agony within the Backyard of Gethsemane proved a devotional, considerate and delicate piece,  

No doubt, Merton excelled of their efficiency tightly managed by Benjamin Nicholas that was merely inspiring and joyous to listen to within the elegant environment of Pugin’s Gothic masterpiece whereas the choir dug deep and located gravitas and understanding in delivering a wonderful account of Duruflé’s Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est (The place true charity and love dwell, God himself is there) written in 1960. 

Of solely two minutes in size, the motet’s primarily based on an historical chant of the identical identify which will have originated with the so-called Gallican ceremony, the liturgical custom used within the church buildings of Gaul earlier than Gregorian chant was carried out by the Frankish sovereign, Pepin the Quick, in the course of the eighth century.  

Closing the primary half of the programme, Stravinsky was again on the invoice and so have been, too, Merton (full on!) delivering a shiny and clever studying of the Mass, a setting of the Latin Mass that Stravinsky wrote between 1944 and 1945, scored for an ensemble of wind devices comprising two oboes, English horn (cor anglais), two bassoons, two trumpets and three trombones.  

Representing one among solely a handful of extant items by Stravinsky that was not commissioned, Robert Craft, who labored intently with the composer, is quoted as saying that he wrote it out of a ‘non secular necessity’. Carried out by the ‘man-of-the second’, Nicholas Daniel, who achieved a great steadiness between the choral and instrumental forces, the work discovered nice favour with the viewers in what proved a completely pleasant efficiency not least by Stravinsky’s thrilling writing for the ‘Sanctus’ which discovered brass, woodwind and the choral forces in combating temper totally concentrated delivering a riveting efficiency. 

Though Stravinsky deserted the Russian Orthodox Church in his teenagers he was reconnected to his religion by attending a service on the basilica of Saint Anthony of Padua within the mid-Twenties which impressed him to write down his first spiritual composition, Pater Noster, for an a cappella choir. How I might dearly love to listen to Merton carry out it. 

Stravinsky: Mass – Choir of Merton School, Britten Sinfonia, Nicholas Daniel – St George’s Cathedral, Southwark (Picture: Britten Sinfonia)

The second half of this pleasant, fulfilling and considerate programme, nevertheless, featured the music of Olivier Messiaen opening with the charming three-minute piece, Vocalise-etude, written in 1935 when Messiaen was 27 which provided a beautiful oboe half performed to exacting requirements by Nicholas Daniel. 

And stunning a packed nave, Merton reassembled behind the church in a semicircle format gathered intently to their conductor, Benjamin Nicholas, to sing O sacrum convivium (O sacred banquet) wherein Christ is obtained, the memorial of his Ardour is renewed, the soul is full of grace and a pledge of future glory is given to all of us. A brief, tender and actually loving piece of simply 4 minutes, Merton’s rendition was delicate, delicate and contemplative inspiring my Christian beliefs. 

The ultimate work in a large and diverse programme fell to Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum whose title punctuates the top of the fourth-century Nicene Creed ‘And I await the resurrection of the useless’ premièred in a non-public efficiency on 7 Might 1965 within the grand and imposing Gothic setting of La Sainte-Chapelle, Paris, graced by President Charles de Gaulle and the nice and the nice! The work’s first public efficiency, nevertheless, came about simply over a month later (20 June) within the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Chartres underneath the route of Serge Baudo. 

The opening bars replicate the despair and hope present in Psalm 130 (‘Out of the depths have I cried unto thee’) adopted by ‘Christ, risen from the useless, now not dies’ thereby celebrating Christ’s victory over dying by the majesty and thriller of the Resurrection. The subsequent two actions ‘The time shall come when the useless hear the voice of the Son of God’ and ‘They shall rise once more in glory, with a brand new identify’ foretell the resurrection of the useless whereas the ultimate motion ‘And I heard the sound of an amazing crowd’ (Revelations 19:6) portrays in a large explosion of orchestral sound (American huge band chief, Stan Kenton, would have actually accepted!) a grand imaginative and prescient of the reward and rejoicing of the resurrected in heaven. 

A religious Catholic, as, too, have been Poulenc and Duruflé, Messiaen was not solely a church organist (he spent 61 years as organist of Église de la Sainte Trinité in Paris) and lectured on the Conservatoire de Paris whereas being a eager ornithologist. His music, due to this fact, replicates ‘birdsong’ by a lot of his works as employed in El exspecto thus symbolizing the concord of the Pure Order with that of Divine Regulation equating to God the Father, the Supreme Being, the final word creator, ruler and preserver of all issues. 

Carried out in such an exquisite and lovely setting as St George’s Cathedral, Southwark, the rarity of this work, I really feel, will lengthy be remembered by members of the viewers and performers alike particularly to these vibrant and gifted college students of the Choir of Merton School who accomplished Oxford College proud! 

Tony Cooper