Tune In Volume 15 Number 5 | October 2021 | Page

Tune In—The Newsletter of Noosa Chorale Inc Volume 15, Number 5, October 2021

Tune In

IAN JOBLING

It was my pleasure to attend Noosa Chorale’s ‘Majestic Mozart’ performances last weekend at The J Theatre, conducted by Adrian King. As a tenor myself with the choir, but unable to attend rehearsals this term, it was a novel experience to be on the other side of the stage for a change.

I shared this new perspective with a number of fellow Noosa Choralers, both past and present, and they have generously given me their reflections on enjoying the performance from “the other side”.

Altos Gail Spira (who is also Noosa Chorale Patron) and Jenny Reeve rehearsed throughout the term with the choir, enduring the challenge of oxygen-depletion whilst singing in face-masks. However, they were disappointed in the end that circumstances prevented their being able to sing in the concerts.

Fortunately they were both able to attend the concert, after which Gail told me, “in these fraught times, it felt like a bright light in our lives—it was exhilarating”. She later wrote:

One can never tire of the Mozart Requiem. It is incredible that such a moving piece could be composed by a relatively young composer. Having heard the choir sing the ‘Requiem’ a number of times over the years, it seems like it is in their DNA, they sing it so lovingly and passionately.

The soloists were a joy to listen to both in their solo roles and the added contrast they gave to the massed sound of the choir. The orchestra in turn added ’the icing on the cake’, and as usual our maestro/

conductor, Adrian King, did an energetic, entertaining and fine job with all.

It was a favourite piece of Leonard’s* and I know he would have been proud to hear such a fine performance of it; it was all I could do to keep tears from flowing.

The choir was as good as I’ve ever heard them, with the tenor and bass sections excelling themselves.

[* The late Leonard Spira, Gail’s husband, was the Chorale’s Music Director from 1994 to 2006.]

Bass Jeremy Martin wrote a note to his fellow basses which he kindly passed on for me to use in this review:

I just have to say what a marvellous Requiem you sang last night. You anchored a magnificent performance giving extraordinary underpinning to the other voices. I was much moved by the whole choir who I think have lifted their singing to new heights.

Many thanks are due to John [Davies] and Pam [Sage] for all the aid they provide to learning this difficult music. I loved every minute of it but was sad not to be able to join you.

Jeremy also wrote a separate note to Adrian:

I thought you were magnificent last night drawing out the very best from the choir and the orchestra that have both gone from strength to strength under your direction. They were caught up in your seemingly inexhaustible energy.

The balancing of the choir sound with the tenors and basses anchoring in the centre gave wonderful colouring to me perched in the very back row. With the ladies singing waves of Mozart notes over the top, it was spine tingling. They all watched you like hawks but sang like larks. Thank you for a wonderful evening.

Soprano Jenny Jackson also wrote about the tenors and basses who she said deserved special mention for the strength of their performances and evident joy in singing:

Gail Spira Jenny Reeve

Jeremy Martin presenting a reading at the Chorale’s 2017 Wassail

Photograph: Russell Borrett

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It was a special experience for me being in the audience. I was proud to be a Noosa Chorale member. The performance was disciplined with many very moving passages. I had goosebumps, my personal gauge of a great sing, in the ‘Lacrimosa’.

Jenny’s suggestion to enrich the audience experience by having a compere introduce each of the soloists’ pieces was reiterated by a number of other audience members.

Debbie Boyles, soprano and sometime soloist in the Chorale, sent me a written note after the concert:

For the very first time I was a member of the audience and not the choir and Noosa Chorale was superb. Considering the few practices and having to rehearse wearing masks, the Mozart Requiem was a delight. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience, singing along in spirit and appreciating the offering from the talented musicians and choristers carried along by maestro Adrian King.

I loved the concert. Seated in the mezzanine I feasted on the sight of the choir seated whilst Adrian wove the orchestra into a glorious sound. The soloists were a joy to behold. Being a soprano I enjoyed the soaring melodies of the two soprano soloists. My ticket was already well surpassed in value.

Rod and Sandi Probert, tenor and soprano, respectively, also expressed their delight at being members of the audience for a change:

Having always experienced performances from the other side of the podium it was a delight to share the qualities of such a committed choir of such quality from the audience.

Mozart [also] would have been delighted with the wonderful solos, orchestral professionalism and a choir which soared to the challenges of the Requiem.

Given the difficulties caused by Covid with limited numbers and practices in masks, this was a tour de force, brought, as always, to a brilliant standard by the fantastic leadership of the ‘maestro’ Adrian.

Alto Jenny Reeve knew how challenging the music is, having attended almost all the rehearsals:

During rehearsals some sections of the Requiem were musically very complex and quite a challenge to get up to the speed that Adrian had asked for. On Friday night, all the parts flowed together beautifully, inter-weaving and balancing one another. Orchestra and choir complemented each other very well.

Huguette Brassine, accompanist for the Chorale for many years, praised the splendid quality of the performances by all, adding an interesting note on the setting of Mozart’s Requiem:

The music of Mozart was in many instances a search for light and shade but the Requiem, which Mozart sensed that he wrote for his own demise, touches us profoundly as it reflects maybe a certain sincere and

intellectual distress towards the end of his life. Orchestra, singers, soloists and conductor gave us a very rewarding rendition of this great and deep work.

In addition to the wonderful music, I want to add a comment about the visual setting during the performances. Fellow tenor Gloria Meyer and I talked about a ‘first’ for the Chorale—the use of the stage curtain, an innovation introduced by event coordinator par excellence, Sherelle Scott.

Having the stage curtain closed at the beginning of the concert and after interval enabled all 61 singers to assemble on stage prior to the curtain opening. Gloria subsequently sent me a note saying:

To me, the backdrop of curtains highlighted by red lighting, the Chorale dressed in the basic uniform of black, with red scarves worn by the ladies, helped to emphasise the atmosphere for this Requiem.

Yes, I thank the contributors who wrote ‘my’ review for me. However, I feel Gloria has expressed the feelings of all contributors to this article who were audience members on this occasion:

As a member of the Chorale since 1990, and having sung this Requiem at least twice, this Saturday’s performance I will remember probably most of all, because, as an observer, I could appreciate the effort and expertise everyone contributed to a memorable afternoon.

Jenny Jackson Debbie Boyles

Rod and Sandi Probert

Huguette Brassine

Gloria Meyer

POSTSCRIPT

Detailed bios of the concert soloists, Judit Molnar, Anne Fulton, Greg Massingham, and Mark Jowett, were included in the concert programme available on the Chorale’s website www.noosachorale.org.au/concerts-this-year Unfortunately, tenor Greg Massingham had to withdraw at late notice because of illness.

We are indebted to Graham Godfrey who stepped into the tenor role at the last minute. Graham graduated from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, took Postgraduate and Opera Studies at the Royal College of Music, London, and the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh, Suffolk. For 10 years he was a Professor of Singing at the Royal Academy of Music in London, is a past member of the Vocal Faculty of the Music Department at the University of Queensland, and a professional singing Adjudicator.

Mark Jowett [bass], Judit Molnar [soprano], Adrian King [conductor], Anne Fulton [mezzo soprano], and Graham Godfrey [tenor] Photograph: Russell Borrett

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ANGIE OAKLEY

One. Plus hundreds of other people!!!

The one, of course, is esteemed Music Director and Conductor Adrian King—a man for all seasons! Adrian has been rehearsing both the choir AND the orchestra over the last few months leading up to last weekend’s unparalleled concert performances.

Then there’s four exceptional soloists—Judit Molnar [soprano], Anne Fulton [mezzo-soprano], Mark Jowett [bass], and Graham Godfrey [tenor]. And thirty-one exceptional musicians making up the Mozart Orchestra. Add to this sixty-one fabulously well-rehearsed Chorale singers, and that’s already quite a crowd—101 people so far if you’ve been counting.

But of course the show could not go on without the organisers behind the scene. So add in wonder girl and Event Coordinator, Sherelle Scott (right) to bring the whole shebang together.

Now add a few more people to the mix in the form of an energetic band of attentive volunteers ushering people to their seats, selling concert programmes, presenting gifts to the soloists...

And don’t forget the efforts of so many individual choir members—Jim Fagan for his articles promoting the concert in the local press, and the rest of the Tune In team (Angie Oakley, Ian Jobling, and Cal Webb), Cal for also preparing the concert programme, Secretary Rita Malik for keeping the choir on track with weekly reminders, Paul Ritchie for his masterly MC-ing at the concert, Jannine Ritchie for keeping the choir in line!, Ann Milland for her super social pics of audience members, … and more...

Underpinning all this are the staff of The J Theatre, managing box office, stage preparation, sound and lighting, ushering, and the myriad tasks involved in providing professional quality venue support.

But the biggest group of people that always make our performances such a joy and the whole venture of our concerts so worthwhile is our audience—the literally hundreds of people who come to share the beauty and thrill of great choral masterpieces like Mozart’s with us.

Thank you to all of you!

Fran Wilson, President Noosa Chorale

Many, many congratulations Noosa Chorale for the splendid and superb Mozart performances on the Friday and Saturday.

Countless audience and also orchestral players came up to me at the end of both concerts to ecstatically say how impressed they were with you all. I too was very pleased with the way in which you interpreted my every intention, watching and looking up for your entries,

clear crisp diction, wonderful dynamics, passionate singing and good intonation.

In addition, the balance of the voice parts was nigh perfection – so thank you for making this concert so memorable and special choir!

I have written a grateful ‘thank you’ to both the orchestra and soloists. I am sure you will agree with me that the orchestra supported you unwaveringly and with great musicianship and the soloists were superb.

This will be a concert to be remembered, as we have to count ourselves very fortunate in this day and age of Covid that the production went ahead without interruption!

I hope you enjoy your Tuesday evening “off” and I look forward to seeing and hearing you all in the Christmas programme rehearsals.

Again, ‘hats off’ to you all for a wonderful ‘sing’! Sincere best wishes, Adrian.

I don’t know if I was the only one in the choir so moved by the sublime soloists’ singing that I forgot where I was for a moment. Fortunately everyone else was paying attention and surged in with such glorious harmony, it carried me along with it.

Thus for a tentative alto who has been wonderfully supported by my accomplished fellow singers, this concert was an experience so joyous, that I’m still on a high.

And it’s all the more remarkable, because the lead up was absolutely fraught with difficulty. Thanks to Covid, rehearsals were cancelled, masks muffled us, and worst of all – there were no tea breaks with Wilma’s biccies!

As if that were not enough of a nightmare for our dedicated committee, the whole programme had to be changed in midstream, many of our members had to pull out because of health and family and other commitments, and at the eleventh hour, a replacement had to be raced in as our tenor soloist succumbed to illness.

Only the consummate professionalism of Adrian, the soloists, the orchestra, our wonderful pianist Janet saved the day, and our faithful guides through these topsy turvy times, Fran and Sherelle.

And from where I stood, I thought both concerts were simply marvellous. The energy and sharpness, the melodic

sensibility, the balance and fervour of the choir under Adrian’s impeccable direction brought us all to a place of rare connection and beauty.

And it’s the shared love of the music that inspires us, and brings us to that place. Week after week of rehearsal, through all the trials and the hard work, it never palls. It gives and keeps giving to that part of us that craves beauty in our lives.

This music takes us out of our ordinary days and into a transcendent place at times so moving and sublime, that for a few brief hours it’s transformative.

The Requiem is Mozart’s final work, created in the throes of his last illness and an astonishing and exquisite triumph over the sadness that can beset a human life.

More than two hundred years later, the music and the wonderful support offered one to another in an endeavour such as this cannot fail to give solace and inspiration to us all as we face whatever joys and sorrows that life has in store for us.

“Salva me”, we sing—”save me, help me”. Music won't save us from the inevitabilities of life, but boy, does it sweeten the journey!

Noosa Chorale President Fran Wilson

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Audience members—Majestic Mozart at The J Theatre, 17 & 18 September 2021 Photographs: Ann Milland (See more concert photos on the Chorale website—www.noosachorale.org.au)

Floss Smith and Liza Park

Ethel and Brian Green

Norma and Michael Marks

Ian Cochrane and Janet Gibson

Diane Hackett and Jane Davis

Helen Williams

Helen Price

Lorraine Esbensen

Karen Johnson

Margaret Jorgensen and Laurie Cowled

Clare Nash and Moya Gabriel

Angelica Wang and Martin Bailey

Garry Harvey, Ronelle Bradford, Barbara Harvey

Erica Gartner

Steve Blount

Jenny and Jan King

Ute Rosenbauer, Simon Hennessy, Rose & Brian James

Tune In Volume 15 Number 5 | October 2021 | Page 5

Photo: Ann Milland

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Tune In—The Newsletter of Noosa Chorale Inc.

Regular contributors: Angie Oakley, Ian Jobling

A MUSICAL GLOSSARY OF TERMS FOR ALL YOU BUDDING MUSOS

ALLREGRETTO: When you're 16 measures into the piece and realize you took too fast a tempo ANGUS DEI: To play with a divinely beefy tone A PATELLA: Accompanied by knee-slapping APPOLOGGIATURA: A composition that you regret playing APPROXIMATURA: A series of notes not intended by the composer, yet played with an "I meant to do that" attitude APPROXIMENTO: A musical entrance that is somewhere in the vicinity of the correct pitch DILL PICCOLINI: An exceedingly small wind instrument that plays only sour notes FLUTE FLIES: Those tiny mosquitoes that bother musicians on outdoor gigs FRUGALHORN: A sensible and inexpensive brass instrument GREGORIAN CHAMP: The title bestowed upon the monk who can hold a note the longest PLACEBO DOMINGO: A faux tenor SPRITZICATO: An indication to string instruments to produce a bright and bubbly sound TEMPO TANTRUM: What an elementary school orchestra is having when it's not following the conductor