Rian Evans 

Three Choirs festival: Dvořák’s Stabat Mater – surging crescendoes resonated through the cathedral

Geraint Bowen handled the tricky pacing of Dvořák's sombre, yet hopeful masterpiece with discipline and grace, writes Rian Evans
  
  

Three Choirs festival
Glorious … Three Choirs festival, in Worcester Photograph: PR

The Three Choirs festival had already been going strong for almost a century and three quarters when Dvořák came to Worcester Cathedral in 1884 to conduct his choral work, the Stabat Mater. A mere 130 years on, Hereford's artistic director, Geraint Bowen, conducted the present Festival Chorus in a performance commemorating Dvořák's visit.

A substantial work, the Stabat Mater contains wonderfully expressive music that is too rarely performed. The text of Jacopone da Todi's Latin sequence, telling of Mary at her son's crucifixion, is sombre yet ultimately full of hope, and it was for consolation that Dvořák – grieving for an infant daughter – began to set the words. He would return to the sketch when two more children also died, less than a month apart.

The sense of tragedy is more than adequately balanced by the promise of heavenly joy. One of the difficulties for interpreters, given that the 10 movements really only vary between slow and even slower, is pacing all of its 90 minutes. So it was to Bowen's credit that he lightened the dotted rhythm of the Eja Mater and gave the Tui Nati Vulnerati a flowing grace. His choral forces were always disciplined: the expansive melodies were elegantly phrased, with the surging crescendoes and stirring climaxes resonating through the cathedral. There was much to admire, with the Philharmonia – in the second of their three-year tenure as orchestra-in-residence at the festival – relishing Dvořák's orchestral writing. The final chorus, with its fugal Amen, the single fast tempo, and a jubilant contemplation of paradise, was glorious.

Mezzo Catherine Wyn Rogers' singing, meanwhile,  was the highlight of the solos, both tender and passionate, as was that of tenor Paul Nilon. The impassive delivery of soprano Eleanor Dennis and bass Matthew Rose paled in comparison.

• Continues until 2 August. Box office: 0845 652 1823. Details: Three Choirs festival.

 

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