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R3 Carol Competition
Dec. 20th, 2016 09:00 pmI've been listening to the final entries in Radio 3's Christmas Carol Competition, which this year features a series of settings of the anonymous text "Alleluia! A new work is come on hand..." The final pieces are all of an extremely high standard and each very distinctive in their own way, making it very hard to chose between them.
Both Nicholas Hopton, whose piece has echoes of Vaughan Williams about it, and Jessie Reeves, seem to be most approachable. Introducing her piece Reeves says that she likes pieces that slightly slushy and twee, with the result that her piece sounds rather like something John Rutter might have written.
Clive Osgood's piece includes a very effective piano introduction and a particularly nice cadence on the first alleluia. Osgood wrote the piece with his own church choir in mind and it certainly comes across as the sort of piece that would work very well in that space. Ghislaine Reece-Trapp's setting had a dancing rhythm — in her introduction she mentions this — reminding me of Holst's partsongs or perhaps one of Vaughan Williams' folk-influenced settings.
Thomas Neal's rhythmic, energetic, Waltonian setting was probably the most interesting and most musically adventurous of the settings; but sadly, the dry acoustics of the recording studio didn't do it any justice in yesterday's live concert. Joy Williams' setting, in contrast, is a quiet, very English setting where the effects are subtle and where solo parts are carefully used to emphasise the text; definite echoes of Finzi or early Howells.
All the pieces are excellent and each is enjoyable in its own way. It'll be interesting to see which one wins when the results are announced on the 22nd.
ETA: Jessie Reeves was the successful winner with her charming verse setting on the poem. Given the appeal of the piece and the composer's evidence skill at writing for voices, I find I'm not particularly surprised by the result!
Both Nicholas Hopton, whose piece has echoes of Vaughan Williams about it, and Jessie Reeves, seem to be most approachable. Introducing her piece Reeves says that she likes pieces that slightly slushy and twee, with the result that her piece sounds rather like something John Rutter might have written.
Clive Osgood's piece includes a very effective piano introduction and a particularly nice cadence on the first alleluia. Osgood wrote the piece with his own church choir in mind and it certainly comes across as the sort of piece that would work very well in that space. Ghislaine Reece-Trapp's setting had a dancing rhythm — in her introduction she mentions this — reminding me of Holst's partsongs or perhaps one of Vaughan Williams' folk-influenced settings.
Thomas Neal's rhythmic, energetic, Waltonian setting was probably the most interesting and most musically adventurous of the settings; but sadly, the dry acoustics of the recording studio didn't do it any justice in yesterday's live concert. Joy Williams' setting, in contrast, is a quiet, very English setting where the effects are subtle and where solo parts are carefully used to emphasise the text; definite echoes of Finzi or early Howells.
All the pieces are excellent and each is enjoyable in its own way. It'll be interesting to see which one wins when the results are announced on the 22nd.
ETA: Jessie Reeves was the successful winner with her charming verse setting on the poem. Given the appeal of the piece and the composer's evidence skill at writing for voices, I find I'm not particularly surprised by the result!
