CE Queen's Chapel of the Savoy, London Sunday, June 26th

[DracoM]

Decent, tight little ensemble, good at the top. Spritely and well-sung Kelly canticles brought out the best and actually gave the choir something to do. The rest was frankly dreary.

Wearisome History channel / travelogue at the start, a sermon that went on too long, Sullivan and Rutter..........ahem.

[decantor]

Very satisfying to tick the box: until this week, I had no idea there was an all-male choir still operating at the Savoy Chapel, and now I've heard them! And they're a very respectable unit too. They did indeed deliver a rousing version of Kelly: given the 'Light Fantastic' context, I was even able to enjoy the hyperglycaemic Rutter, as the singers were clearly enjoying the performance of it, with the trebs producing a lovely rounded tone in their mid-range. I'm afraid I could find no redeeming features in the lacklustre Sullivan items. In view of the relative obscurity of the foundation, I thought the opening words were well justified, though later spoken offerings less so, maybe. But I'm glad the Savoy choir now has a live CE broadcast under its belt, even if the mikes were located in the hotel.

Am I not right that St Olave's, pre-Orpington, educated the choristers of Southwark cathedral?

[bach736]

Ian Bradley is an experienced broadcaster and should have known better than to talk at such length in a 60' CE.
Good choir - a bit shrill up top, I thought - but that may have been the rubbish radio I was listening on. Several fractionally late entries in the Kelly - it's not an easy one to sing - and they didn't quite get astride the rhythm. Nice to hear it again, though.
The Rutter? Well, a bit Radio 2 but then it was a festival of light music - and the organ was made for the Whitlock.
Overall, an interesting and enjoyable service.

[cogger]

I am delighted both by the broadcast and by the relatively complimentary comments. I was a chorister at the Chapel from 1963 when the choir was directed by William Cole and his influence was undoubtedly responsible for my career as a Cathedral lay clerk. He remembered his choristers and even if you turned up many years later unannounced he would ask how things were at... He used to support a very good back row and also knew most of the music world so that the deps were a fascination as were some of the gigs we did as choristers for him. The standard at the Chapel has been consistent over the years and under his successors and I am thrilled that the place where it all started for me has at last been recognised.

[Magnificat]

Very committed choir I thought. They did well considering the limited rehearsal time they must have.

Enjoyed the spoken parts of the service very much the collects, prayers etc were beautifully read and I thought the minister was delightfully unflustered by the mix up at the end.

I would have preferred the hymn to the voluntary the organ seemed clapped out to me. Agreed with all that was said in the homily even if it was a bit long.

VCC

[ardcarp]

Just heard it on i-player. What a fascinating CE! I'm a bit more sanguine abaout it than you, dear Draco!

Wearisome History channel / travelogue at the start, a sermon that went on too long,

Whilst I disapprove of travelogues and especially sermons, I have to say the travelogue was far from wearisome (quite good to be informed about this hidden-away gem) and the sermon (not having much to do with God) one of the best I've heard!

The Sullivan anthem may not have been to everyone's taste, but it was fairly typical of the late Victorian period...think Stainer or Ouseley.

To have 'Hail Poetry' from Pirates of Penzance during CE was novel. Gilbert intended it to be heavily satirical, of course, and one wonders what he might have made of all those 'royal' prayers near the end with their choral tags! How many private chapels does the Queen actually need, by the way?

I think someone posted their dislaike of Onward Christian Soldiers...which we didn't actually get. Come on, it's a great tune! I played it to death (along with Stand up X2 for Jesus) when I was a kid on a beat-up old harmonium I bought from a junk shop for £1. So I for one was disappointed.

But well done to the QCS choir. It was a bit like singing in the aural equivalent of a goldfish bowl, I guess, which makes it all the more impressive.

[DracoM]

Totally agree about choir, ardcarp mate, and I really do hope CE authorities at Beeb give them a chance to sing a 'proper' CE - yes, I know that will bring the house down on me, ............. 'Light Fantastic Festival' in CE indeed!!

Would really like to hear those boys singing something better / different. Good mature treb sound - if you see what I mean.

[Contre Bombarde]

'Light Fantastic Festival' in CE indeed!!

Well not quite in CE, but...

One of our regulars at Sunday morning mass is a most charming and gracious nonagenarian lady with aristocratic connections who celebrated a birthday this weekend. She has told me once or twice over lunches to which she has invited Madame Voix Céleste and me that "Elizabethan Serenade" by Ronald Binge, a theatre organist as well as composer, has been a favourite tune of hers since first she heard it some 40 or more years ago.

As a small birthday gift I this week improvised the Communion music on that theme and was hugely chuffed when she took my hand after the service and said, with tears in her eyes, "They are quite wrong, you know; the devil doesn't have the best tunes."

[bach736]

Contre Bombarde - have you done the Ren & Stimpy Log song recently?

[Contre Bombarde]

Contre Bombarde - have you done the Ren & Stimpy Log song recently?

I'm sorry bach736, I don't know who Ren & Stimpy are and I haven't "done a log song", something which perhaps sounds a little too lavatorial...

[DracoM]

< Well not quite in CE, but... >

Contre-bombarde, that is no gloss by me: it is EXACTLY how it was introduced by the CA on R3, the egregious Petroc.

[bach736]

Apologies, CB - it was an amusing organ transcription of an American advertising jingle, uploaded to You Tube by a Parisian based Contre Bombarde!
Hadn't realised there were so many of you.

[Contre Bombarde]

< Well not quite in CE, but... >

Contre-bombarde, that is no gloss by me: it is EXACTLY how it was introduced by the CA on R3, the egregious Petroc.

Sorry Draco, my meaning was that my piece of light musical entertainment wasn't performed in CE but morning mass.

All glory, laud etc bach736. I hope to be Paris based in the not too distant future but, as they say, it weren't me I didn't do it!

Can there ever be enough Bombardes 32p? I have quite a good story of the first time that I encountered a really big C-C reed which I may tell one day.

[bach736]

Look forward to it.

[ardcarp]

...can't wait