Radiant in Blue and Gold
St Cuthbert’s Church 24/5/25
Edinburgh Royal Choral Union
Edinburgh Pro Musica Orchestra
Michael Bawtree conductor and harpsichord
Fraser David Macdonald conductor
The lovely nave and balcony of St Cuthbert’s Church are full for the Edinburgh Royal Choral Union’s concert. Despite a balmy evening, most people have raincoats or umbrellas under their seats for the forecast downpour. Handel’s ‘Dixit Dominus’, J S Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No 5 and Missa Brevis in A promise a sunny programme, with the premiere of Fraser David Macdonald’s ‘Advice for a Butterfly’ containing reflections on short- lived beauty and the capacity for change. The concert’s title ‘Radiant in Blue and Gold’ is from a line in the libretto by the US poet Alice Freeman Palmer about the chrysalis, the ”dull brown thing” which turns into a “pretty creature radiant in blue and gold”.
The hundred-strong chorus are joined by the impressive small baroque ensemble, Edinburgh Pro Musica Orchestra, led by Amira Bedrush-McDonald. Michael Bawtree directs from the harpsichord, and his programme note tells us that ‘Dixit Dominus’ is Handel’s first surviving choral work, written by the 22 year-old in Italy, when a ban on stage performances led him to explore non-operatic possibilities. I think this is the first time that I’ve heard the work live, and it’s obvious very soon that – just as in his later sacred oratorios – there’s a great deal of operatic panache in this devotional setting of Psalm 110. The complex opening chorus requires multiple entries, rapidly moving counterpoint and clear diction, all in five parts. The upper sopranos are in a ‘wing’ at the left, the lower sopranos and altos in the centre section, and the tenors and baritones on the right. Michael Bawtree conducts this torrent of music with great precision, something obvious in all the choral sections of the eight-part work.
The most exciting – and exacting - of these is Part VI ‘Dominus a dextris tuis’, a fine piece of Old Testament wrath, promising that the Lord will “ shatter kings”, “fill ruins” and “crush the heads in many lands”. Here Handel revels in the colourful potential of the words, so that “ruinas”, is spat out rapidly by one section after another, the word seeming to go in waves across the choir, before the fierce repeated staccato delivery of the separate syllables of ‘conquassabit’ (he will crush).
The choir membership remains a mixture of ages and experience, and it’s wonderful to see large numbers of younger singers. Recently, the ERCU have sponsored two scholarships for tenors, Harry Lempriere-Johnston and Nathanael Fagerson, both Edinburgh University students. ERCU president, Moira Burke, explains how they have boosted the tenor section of the choir, while also benefiting from the tuition which lets them take solo roles. They and fellow ERCU chorister, soprano Chelsea Morison, and three other young singers, Anna Pych, soprano, Zsuzsana Cerveni, mezzo-soprano and Sacha Del Mar bass, sing the solo roles in ‘Dixit Dominus’. Zsuzsana Cerveni gives a glowing account of ‘Virgam virtutis tua’ accompanied by Ruari Woddsen on cello and Michael Bawtree on harpsichord, and later Anna Pych and Chelsea Morison are pleasing duet partners in the gentle ‘De torente in via bibet’, accompanied by male chorus.
Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No 5 is a concerto grosso, with the featured instruments being harpsichord, Michael Bawtree, violin, Nikodem Rodzeń and flute, Lily Brown, accompanied by the other strings of the orchestra. The allegro first and third movement inspire energetic performances by the whole ensemble, while the affettuoso middle movement, scored for the violin, flute and harpsichord is the calmer – and indeed affecting - centre of the work, with exemplary attention to detail from the two young soloists. Morley Whitehead in his programme note suggests that the harpsichord part, especially the developed cadenza at the end of the first movement makes this the first-ever solo keyboard concerto. Michael Bawtree plays brilliantly throughout, with breathtaking virtuosity in that cadenza.
We return after the interval to the sound of birdsong, and Fraser David Macdonald takes the stage to conduct his new work, ‘Advice for a Butterfly.’ The 24 year-old composer is also the ERCU’s conducting fellow this season. He says that his composition “explores time and change. Written for chorus, piano and string orchestra with two solo violins and two flutes, the music is a study in temporality, capturing the beauty and bittersweet shortness of the life of a butterfly”. Macdonald’s music is melodic writing for a four-part choir, with the flutes and recorded birdsong adding to the harmonies in the music. He writes well for the voice, and choir members are enthusiastic about the work. The words, reflections on the lives of butterflies, are by US poets, mostly working in the late Victorian period and the earlier part of the 20th century – the exception is Richard Wilbur 1921-2016, excerpts from whose 1961 poem ‘Advice to a Prophet’ provide the text for Harry Lempriere-Johnston’s tenor solo. The poem which begins – unsurprising given its date - with prophecies about the impact of modern weaponry, turns to the earth’s ecological fragility in the section chosen. This is very much Macdonald’s message in his work, and contains his best most vigorous music, which the young tenor sings admirably, a committed performance showing his strong flexible voice. The composer/conductor is obviously delighted – and a bit relieved – when his work receives well-deserved applause!
Bach, like Handel, wrote relatively little in Latin – although curiously the Lutheran Church had no objection to services or music in Latin. For the Missa Brevis in A the orchestra retains its two flutes and full complement of strings, plus basso continuo (organ, played by Morley Whitehead, who also wrote the programme notes). The Mass is described as ‘brief’, despite its 30 minutes length, because it contains just the Kyrie and the Gloria. The three-part Kyrie, with brisk choruses in the first and third sections has an intriguing and lovely Christe Eleison written for four solo voices and a solo flute. Many of the soloists’ parts are interspersed in longer choral numbers, and they all sing well in these shorter interventions, the two tenor scholars becoming adept at moving from their places in the male voices to the central area. In her longer solo mezzo-soprano Zsuzsana Cerveni again stands out with her confident delivery and engagement with the audience. But the main impact in the Mass comes from the exceptional choral singing, with the bright final sections of the ‘Gloria’ delivered with obvious enjoyment which spreads to the audience. There’s enthusiastic applause for the choir, soloists and their outstanding conductor, Michael Bawtree; it continues for some time, before mentally uplifted - but also suitably attired - we go out into the wet Edinburgh night.