The three cathedral choirs from Norwich, Ely and Peterborough gave their first joint concert for more than 25 years in Norwich Cathedral as part of this year’s Norfolk & Norwich Festival on Thursday 24 May.
The concert celebrated three of this year’s centenaries – the birth of American composer Leonard Bernstein, the death of Hubert Parry and the founding of the Choir Schools’ Association. Bernstein is perhaps best known for West Side Story, but the three choirs started their concert with his highly acclaimed Chichester Psalms.
Hubert Parry, the English composer who gave us Jerusalem, died on 7 October 1918 and the programme featured two of his anthems, including I Was Glad – one of the most rousing and popular anthems of all time. Vaughn Williams, Holst and Ireland, all pupils of Parry, were also included in the programme.
Concert goers were also the first to hear a special commission – Dark Sayings – by Alex Woolf, who was BBC Young Composer of the Year in 2012. Alex was a music scholar at St John’s College, Cambridge, and recent compositions of his include a new flute work for James Galway, which was commissioned by Classic FM and The Royal Philharmonic Society.
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The concert featured choristers from three members of the Choir Schools’ Association (CSA). The CSA was formed 100 years ago by the headmasters of St Paul’s Cathedral School, Westminster Abbey Choir School and King’s College School, Cambridge to save choir schools from new government regulations governing the employment of children about to be introduced by the 1918 Fisher Education Act. Fortunately, cathedral choristers were excluded from the legislation, and the three founding schools were quickly joined by schools all over the country, including King’s School Ely, King’s School Peterborough and Norwich School.
The Association’s Centenary celebrations were launched earlier this month with a Special Evensong in St Paul’s Cathedral and the concert of 24 May is part of a number of collaborations around the country until the end of the year.
Steffan Griffiths, Head Master of Norwich School, said: “We are thrilled that the Three Choirs tradition has been revived in the East of England to celebrate this trio of anniversaries. It was a wonderful concert, with a stimulating programme in the inspirational setting of Norwich Cathedral that showed off the best of the English choral tradition. It also served to remind us all how music is uniquely placed to bring people together, whether performers or audience”.
Photos: Copyright © Paul Hurst all rights reserved.