The Maidstone Singers’ Tour of Southern Spain June 2016
This was a tour that Jeffrey Vaughan Martin had planned for the choir but one which he did not live to see completed. The loss of their Music Director did not stop the choir from touring however; in fact, it charged their performances with an emotional intensity that provided their unsuspecting audiences with a remarkable musical experience. The tour became a tribute to Jeffrey who would have been very proud of the group that he had created and led for 20 years.
In the beautiful city of Ronda the choir performed some of their most familiar sacred repertoire in the Convento de Santo Domingo, ably conducted from their ranks by Marion Weller. The programme contained fifteen pieces including Bruckner’s ‘Ave Maria’, Stanford’s ‘Beati Quorum Via’, Gjeilo’s ‘Ubi Caritas’ and Lauridsen’s ‘O Magnum Mysterium’ all of which were sung quite beautifully. The audience was particularly impressed when the choir split into two to sing ‘Hail Gladdening Light’ by Charles Wood. But the emotional high point for both choir and audience was perhaps Philip Stopford’s ‘Do not be afraid’ which has become one of the choir’s favourite pieces. Having survived this challenge admirably, they showed their spirit with Jeffrey’s battle cry of an encore ‘De battle ob Jericho’ and the walls very nearly did come tumbling down with the standing ovation at the ending.
On to Cadiz, where the Singers joined with the chamber choir, Nova Mvsica in a concert in the Iglesia del Carmen in San Fernando. The two groups took it in turns to sing a variety of sacred music and then joined to perform ‘O quam gloriosam’ by T.L. de Victoria. In the year of their 25th anniversary Nova Mvsica, conducted by Eduardo Gallardo de Gomar, chose seven pieces including Byrd’s ‘Ave Verum’ and Thomas Tallis’ ‘If Ye Love Me’. This experienced and talented group provided a perfect counterpart to their English partners.
The final concert in Cadiz was the highlight of the tour. Once again the choirs combined, this time in performing Sir Karl Jenkins’ ‘Stabat Mater’ with Stephanie Crooks as the contralto soloist and with accompaniment from the youthful Ensemble La Stavaganza. This challenging piece incorporates Middle Eastern vocals and instruments into the Western style of the traditional Stabat Mater setting in Jenkins’ own unique way. It calls for a remarkable talent on the part of the soloist as well as the choir, and Stephanie, who is very familiar with the piece, excelled. The Andalusian audience whose culture is infused with their Arabic past had no difficulty in relating to this mixture of styles and immediately recognised the quality of both the music and of the performance itself. The 300 strong audience seated in the open air cloisters of the Iglesia Conventual de Sto. Domingo on a warm summer’s evening showed their appreciation with a standing ovation and demanded an encore. The excellent music direction by Eduardo Gallardo de Gomar and the part played by his choir helped to prove what high standards can be achieved by such international cooperation between musical groups, as Jeffrey Vaughan Martin always believed. But the evening was also a triumph for a British composer and a choir from England.
Michael Marriott