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Britten's got talent for his War Requiem
By Robert Beale
MARCUS FARNSWORTH has been in charge of Manchester University Chorus for four years, and now, as he moves on to full-time training as a baritone soloist at the Royal Academy of Music opera school, he is taking them to their most ambitious concert ever.
For the first time in the choir’s history, it is hiring the Bridgewater Hall and has a truly starry line-up of soloists for one of the most challenging (and greatest) big-choir works in the modern choral repertoire - Britten’s War Requiem.
Among them is world opera star and former Royal Northern College of Music student, soprano Amanda Roocroft.
Tenor Andrew Clayton and baritone Roderick Williams are top-drawer singers, too.
For a non-auditioned chorus, War Requiem is quite something to take on.
There are 260 singers in the University Chorus, a large majority of them undergraduates.
The requirements for the orchestra are also remarkably demanding.
Britten wrote for a separate chamber orchestra in addition to a normal symphony orchestra, and for the work’s premiere (it was commissioned to mark the opening of Coventry Cathedral) he was himself the second conductor in charge of the smaller group.
In a concert hall, the work can be directed by a single conductor, but not only does he have two orchestras but also two choirs to think of: there is a children’s choir, which on Monday Sunday will be supplied by choristers of Manchester and Chester cathedrals.
So Farnsworth is an ambitious man. But he also seems to have something of a genius as a fixer, as Amanda Roocroft’s services are in demand in the world’s top opera houses and she is not exactly easy to get. How did he do it?
“It goes back to 2003, when the Martin Harris Centre (with the music department’s new base in it) opened, and she was awarded an honorary doctorate,” he says.
“She came and sang for us then, and I remember hearing her in War Requiem with the Hallé a few years ago.
“I thought: ‘Maybe we could ask her if she’d do it for us.’ Professor David Fanning (the head of the music department) passed on the message and she said yes. We’re extremely lucky to get her.”
He has no illusions about the scale of what he’s taken on.
“One of the hardest things about it is co-ordinating the vast forces - tieing them all together is quite difficult. And some parts are challenging for the chorus.”
As it happens, the concert marks the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War.
Manchester University Chorus and Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Marcus Farnsworth, present Britten’s War Requiem at the Bridgewater Hall on Sunday, May 3. Call 0161 907 9000.
Published: Thu, 30 April, 2009
(Source: Manchester Evening News)
By Robert Beale
MARCUS FARNSWORTH has been in charge of Manchester University Chorus for four years, and now, as he moves on to full-time training as a baritone soloist at the Royal Academy of Music opera school, he is taking them to their most ambitious concert ever.
For the first time in the choir’s history, it is hiring the Bridgewater Hall and has a truly starry line-up of soloists for one of the most challenging (and greatest) big-choir works in the modern choral repertoire - Britten’s War Requiem.
Among them is world opera star and former Royal Northern College of Music student, soprano Amanda Roocroft.
Tenor Andrew Clayton and baritone Roderick Williams are top-drawer singers, too.
For a non-auditioned chorus, War Requiem is quite something to take on.
There are 260 singers in the University Chorus, a large majority of them undergraduates.
The requirements for the orchestra are also remarkably demanding.
Britten wrote for a separate chamber orchestra in addition to a normal symphony orchestra, and for the work’s premiere (it was commissioned to mark the opening of Coventry Cathedral) he was himself the second conductor in charge of the smaller group.
In a concert hall, the work can be directed by a single conductor, but not only does he have two orchestras but also two choirs to think of: there is a children’s choir, which on Monday Sunday will be supplied by choristers of Manchester and Chester cathedrals.
So Farnsworth is an ambitious man. But he also seems to have something of a genius as a fixer, as Amanda Roocroft’s services are in demand in the world’s top opera houses and she is not exactly easy to get. How did he do it?
“It goes back to 2003, when the Martin Harris Centre (with the music department’s new base in it) opened, and she was awarded an honorary doctorate,” he says.
“She came and sang for us then, and I remember hearing her in War Requiem with the Hallé a few years ago.
“I thought: ‘Maybe we could ask her if she’d do it for us.’ Professor David Fanning (the head of the music department) passed on the message and she said yes. We’re extremely lucky to get her.”
He has no illusions about the scale of what he’s taken on.
“One of the hardest things about it is co-ordinating the vast forces - tieing them all together is quite difficult. And some parts are challenging for the chorus.”
As it happens, the concert marks the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War.
Manchester University Chorus and Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Marcus Farnsworth, present Britten’s War Requiem at the Bridgewater Hall on Sunday, May 3. Call 0161 907 9000.
Published: Thu, 30 April, 2009
(Source: Manchester Evening News)