Classical review: VOCES8 returns splendidly to the Cathedral Basilica

Several STL high school choirs joined the proceedings

Last week was quite the week for aficionados of British choral ensembles, with the Westminster Cathedral Choir featured two Mondays back (March 31), and the vocal octet VOCES8 likewise last Friday (April 4), both at the Cathedral Basilica as closers of this season’s Cathedral Concerts series. VOCES8 is no stranger to the Cathedral Basilica, having just been there last season in October 2023. This visit, however, upped the ante by showcasing VOCES8’s educational work with local high school choirs, as part of the group’s educational work that extends beyond their home turf to several US regions. For obvious logistical reasons, VOCES8 does this education work with American school choruses virtually for the most part, with in-person work when the group is on tour here. The presence of STL regional high school choruses wasn’t the only difference from VOCES8’s most recent visit to STL. Soprano Molly Noon left the group last year, with Swedish soprano Eleonora Poignant as the ensemble’s newest member and in the group for this tour.

What remained constant was the outstanding musicianship of VOCES8 throughout this 90-minute concert without an interval (the British term; Americans say ‘intermission’), even with recent personnel turnover. This was evident at the outset with the first selection, an arrangement of the anonymous pilgrims’ hymn “Angelus ad Virginem” (‘The angel came to the Virgin’) by Barnaby Smith, co-founder of VOCES8 and the group’s countertenor, and Jonathan Pacey. The group began the hymn from the west ambulatory, and processed to “center stage“ as they sang. One clever aspect of this arrangement was that in places, the ladies’ voices sounded lower, and the mens’ voices higher, than one might have expected, but without any sort of vocal trickery or “extended techniques” involved.

The concert continued with two more Marian selections to make an opening ‘set’ without applause [cleverly conveyed in the program booklet by the phrase “(applause welcome)” at select points (another change from their previous visit, namely the inclusion of the sung texts, with one deliberate and one unintended omission to be explained later)]. The second work was “Nesciens Mater” (‘The Virgin mother [who knew no man]’) by the Renaissance-era French composer Jean Mouton (~1459-1522; surname spelled “Moutons” in the program), which slowed the pace from the previous work and definitely emphasized the long line to produce, in the very best sense of the phrase, a ‘warm bath’ of sound, all the more remarkable in emanating from eight voices and not a choir of dozens. This set’s last Marian selection was a return musical visit of the “Regina Caeli” (“Queen of Heaven”) by Tomás Luis de Victoria (1545-1611), sprightlier in pace and mood again in contrast to the immediately preceding selection. Following the evening’s first applause, baritone Christopher Moore greeted the audience with warm words of praise for the venue, noting also “the wonderful British weather we brought with us” (evidenced by many umbrellas in the narthex). He even dared to utter the musicological technical phrases “eight-part polyphony” and “quadruple canon on the fifth”, where a British accent helps Americans absorb such terminology more easily, to make his larger point that apparently ‘dry’ techniques can produce very fine music.

The next ‘set’ showcased American texts, as set by American composer Eric Whitacre (born 1970) and the young British composer Lucy Walker (born 1998). Mr. Whitacre’s work, “All Seems Beautiful to Me”, set the fifth section of Walt Whitman’s “Song of the Open Road”. Ms. Walker set the Sara Teasdale poem “Peace” under the title “Give Me Your Stars” (the concert’s overall title, BTW), in a 2023 work originally composed for the BBC Singers. The Whitman text was included, but not the Teasdale (for uncertain reasons, even though the text might be in the public domain, such as here). For followers of contemporary choral music, Mr. Whitacre has quite the ‘cult’ following. While not myself of that cult, hearing this work immaculately paced and presented by VOCES8 made the best possible case for it (one unfortunate cell phone ring from the audience aside). Ms. Walker joins a noted roster of composers who have set the Teasdale poem (e.g. Stuart Beatch, Bob Chilcott, Emma Lou Diemer, Ruth Morris Gray, Adam Paltrowitz). As with the Whitacre, VOCES8 played the acoustic perfectly and articulated the text as well as possible, even though the extended reverberation time generally plays havoc with texts. Ms. Walker’s work is very audience-friendly in its harmonic idiom, and clearly well written for voices. In his remarks, Mr. Moore characterized Ms. Walker as one of the bright rising generation of British composers, and it would be interesting to hear more of her work live.

Mr. Smith then introduced the concert’s first student choir, Vox Una Youth Chorale, for the next ‘set’ of two works from very different eras, the concert’s second Tomás Luis de Victoria work, his setting of “O magnum mysterium” (“O great mystery”), and a setting of “Ubi caritas” (“Where charity”) by the contemporary Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo (born 1978). Mr. Smith drolly remarked that the continuing popularity of “Ubi caritas” helps to pay Mr. Gjeilo’s mortgage. Vox Una sang both works from memory (as did all the school choirs), with Mr. Smith conducting the combined ensembles of Vox Una and the other VOCES8 singers. It would have been easy for the seven remaining VOCES8 singers to overpower the larger Vox Una contingent, not in terms of volume, but by sheer dint of artistry and long-time professional experience. However, this never happened, since VOCES8 knew that this concert segment was all about the kids and not about them, and they blended well with each choir throughout. Vox Una did a good job, with Mr. Smith giving them a smile and a thumbs-up after the Tomás Luis de Victoria selection.

Mezzo-soprano Katie Jeffries-Harris then introduced the next high school choir, from Lutheran South High School, for the “Locus iste” (“This place”) of Anton Bruckner (1824-1896), a modest addendum to last year’s Bruckner bicentenary commemorations. As before, Ms. Jeffries-Harris and the remaining VOCES8 singers sang with the kids, with Mr. Smith conducting, and the Lutheran South kids did well. Mr. Smith reclaimed the microphone to bring back Vox Una, to introduce the choir from Ritenour High School, and to talk about the next ‘set’ of two selections from disparate eras. Those two works were the Hildegard von Bingen (c. 1098-1179) hymn ‘Karitas’ (‘Love’) in an arrangement by Paul Smith (co-founder of VOCES8 with his brother Barnaby), and the song “Proud” by Marshmello.

Here is where describing the logistics really dives into the weeds. Mr. Smith indulged in some musicological description of “Proud” as “one of those infamous four-chord songs”, where the chords were C, G, A, and F. He also set up the evening’s one audience participation moment, with particular hand signals for each chord for him to conduct the audience in those backup chords (obviously not the main text). As well, several members of VOCES8 joined Mr. Smith as co-conductors to direct all the kids, including soprano Andrea Haines and Ms. Jeffries-Harris, along quite possibly one or two other VOCES8 singers whom I could not directly see because of my obstructed-view seat. The other singers serving as co-conductors may well have included Ms. Poignant and either tenor Euan Williamson or Mr. Moore. However, I am not 100% sure, and I apologize to any of the VOCES8 singers whom I either missed or misidentified as additional conductors for these two selections.

With all that said, in the Hildegard selection, the members of VOCES8 faced the choirs, and the arrangement had what sounded like rather clever ‘whistling’ effects in its midst. For what was essentially the big community sing-along of “Proud”, all the VOCES8 co-conductors used what looked like the same cues that Mr. Smith had demonstrated to the audience. At several moments, Mr. Smith gave out quick spoken instructions and guidance in real time. Both the high schoolers and the audience did nicely, with a standing ovation for the kids at the end of it all.

Mr. Williamson then introduced the next two-work ‘set’. The first was a setting of the Mark Twain text “Good Night, Dear Heart” by American composer Dan Forrest (born 1978), where both the original poem and the later musical setting resulted from family bereavements. The second selection was a belated program change to “Media vita” (“In the midst of life”) by another contemporary female British choral composer, Kerensa Briggs (born 1991), who was in town for the world premiere of her Missa brevis with the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus two days later and in the audience for this concert. Ms. Briggs’ work takes inspiration from an earlier setting of “Media vita” by John Sheppard (c. 1515-1558), and included a dash of welcome chromatic harmonic spice in her setting. Both the Forrest and Briggs works had a moderate pace, like so much of the concert selections, that allowed VOCES8 to play the space well. Ms. Briggs took a bow to warm applause from probably her largest live St. Louis audience to date. (The originally scheduled work didn’t disappear from the evening’s proceedings.)

Mr. Smith then took the microphone one final time to introduce the final ‘set’ of two historically disparate selections. The first paired two settings of the single line text “Libera nos” (“Free us”) by the aforementioned John Sheppard, where Mr. Smith indicated that bass Dominic Carver had the respiratorially challenging task of singing a very few words over several minutes, with the quip that Mr. Carver “brought his extra lung” for the occasion. Of course, Mr. Carver delivered his bass line admirably, as you would expect (the unwelcome cell phone ring just before the start aside). The official close of the program was a setting by Gustav Holst (1874-1934) of the “Nunc dimittis” (“Now [thou] does dismiss [thy servant]”), composed as a companion piece to the Magnificat primi toni of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, per Mr. Smith’s remarks. Besides the rare chance to hear live a Gustav Holst work that’s not The Planets, this was the concert’s one selection with comparatively “fast” music, which always carries the risk of the Cathedral Basilica acoustic, with its reverberation time of 7+ seconds, garbling texts. Again, however, this demonstrated how skillfully VOCES8 designed and presented this program, saving such a moment until the end. The audience applauded vociferously after the Holst. For the encore, tenor Blake Morgan, the group’s current sole American, introduced the work, the composition displaced by the Kerensa Briggs addition, “The Road Home” by Stephen Paulus (1949-2014), whose text was in the printed program already, of course. By happenstance, the Paulus worked out as a very appropriate encore, as Mr. Morgan’s characterization of the work as “cornfed choral music” (Paulus lived many years in Minnesota) seemed fitting in several ways, as more than a dollop of sentimentality was present in both the text and the music, better heard at the end than before.

Factoring in that the student choirs occupied most of the east transept, the very sizeable audience spilled both into the west transept and very far back in the nave, including other high school groups and one college choir. Next season’s 2025-2026 Cathedral Concerts roster includes VOCES8. The assumption is that their education work will continue here, presumably with a fresh cohort of STL regional high school choirs. As well, another change will be evident at VOCES8’s next visit: Ms. Haines is leaving VOCES8 after this season, after 18 years with them. The group’s new soprano is Savannah Porter, who will become the group’s second American singer in their current line-up. One expects that their exceptionally high standards of musicianship will continue. Much else apart from the group will be different on their return. We shall see.