Packed audience treated to powerful work
The Armed Man
St Paul's Cathedral
Sunday, May 25
St Paul's Cathedral was a sellout yesterday afternoon for a performance by Southern Youth Choir (director John Buchanan) of The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace.
The Armed Man is an anti-war work composed in 2000 by Karl Jenkins, using liturgical Latin Mass text, prose and poetry from other religions, assembled by librettist Guy Wilson.
The event began with the SYC Chamber Choir, conducted by Noah McBirney-Warner in Geistliches Leid (Brahms) and a beautiful setting of Psalm 23 The Lord is my Shepherd (Rutter), with oboe obligato and counter-melodies (Callum Fotheringham) and organ (David Burchell).
The Southern Youth Choir, currently with 60 members, organ and chamber orchestra (including three percussionists) then presented an absolutely outstanding 70-minute performance, full of dynamic contrast and emotion, expressing war, horror and loss, ending with a prayer for a peaceful future.
As the final words faded to silence, the entire audience sprang to a standing ovation until the very last performer had left the stage. So deserved.
Choir members taking solos were soprano Rosie Auchinvole, alto Tessa Campbell, tenor Teddy Finney Waters and bass Ewen Clarke-Wallace.
The opening Mass simulated a marching army with drum beat, then a gradual orchestral build-up assembled the choir, singing 15th century text The Armed Man. Style and pace matched the beginning of war; Adhaan, a Muslim call to prayer, Kyrie, Sanctus, Hymn Before Action, with text by Rudyard Kipling ("Lord grant us strength to die"). The climax came with Charge — a long drawn-out chorus of screaming and wailing depicting the worst action of war, followed by silence and Last Post (Ralph Miller). So effective.
An excerpt from the poem Angry Flames, about the horrors of Hiroshima, Torches, Agnus Dei, Benedictus and lines by Tennyson's Better is Peace completed the work.
Text in the programme enabled full understanding of each section in this epic, never-to-be-forgotten performance.
Review by Elizabeth Bouman
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