Bel a cappella full of light and radiant optimism

Bel a cappella | Vidi Aquam 

August 21, 2022,  St Augustine’s Balmain

With guests Coro Innominata

As the clear winter light filtered through the rose window of St. Augustine’s Catholic Church in Balmain, we were bathed in “spiritual light” through the evocative singing by choristers from Bel a cappella and Coro Innominata. These two choirs (plus some other individuals) were to join forces to sing the Australian premiere of Vidi Aquam by Sir James MacMillan, from which the concert takes its title.

Artistic Director, Anthony Pasquill, held the silence… then he conducted John Taverner’s Svyati, a work that explores the idea of silence, time and space. They were joined by Andrew Wilson on cello, who played his instrument sensitively in dialogue with the choir. The opening was subtle and controlled, the harmonies had an eastern tonality, reflecting the traditions of the Eastern Orthodox Church. According to Taverner, the cello represents the Ikon of Christ and was played in a style derived from the choristers’ chanting in Church Slavonic. (Alas, I could not see the cellist, so there is no accompanying sketch). The cellist’s playing increased in fervour and pitch, expressing grief, while the choir imploringly sang “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy upon us”. 

John Taverner wrote Svyati for a funeral service and it is dedicated to the memory of the father of his friend, Jane Williams. It was an excellent opening to the concert, with Gabriel Jackson’s Requiem at the end creating a full circle.   

The feeling of hope and light was increased with The Spheres by Ola Gjeilo. This ethereal piece was beautifully sung by Coro Innominata. It was an a cappella arrangement of the first movement of his Sunrise Mass and the unusual harmonies evoked the feelings of floating in intense light. 

The two choirs then combined to perform the centrepiece of this concert: the Australian premiere of Vidi Aquam. This 40-part motet was written by Sir James MacMillan in 2019 to commemorate the 450 years since the writing of Spem in Alium by Thomas Tallis. (Some readers might remember a performance of Spem in Alium conducted by Anthony in the QVB in 2018). Using the earlier work as an inspiration, MacMillan composed the piece such that the sound of the eight five-voiced choirs moved around the assembled singers, building up from one to forty voices and subsiding again. The effect was quite hypnotic in today’s wonderful performance, with the sixteenth century style polyphony gradually shifting to more modern, impressionistic sounds. The meaning of the words Vidi Aquam (“I saw water flowing out of the Temple…..and all to whom this water came were saved.”) reverberated in the music. The overall effect was stunning!

This needed to be followed by an Interval, so that both singers and the audience could catch their breath.

Bel a cappella returned with the Sydney premiere of Sundance, a bright and shining work, exuding hope and positivity. Sarah Elise Thompson, who was present in the audience,  wrote this in 2021, and felt it important to feature phrases that her family would use or childhood memories of biblical references she would have heard. This culminated in a feeling of rebirth that was strongly expressed in the beautiful harmonies of the choir singing a sunrise.

I experienced similar feelings during the Australian premiere of Gabriel Jackson’s Requiem, where, towards the end, they again seemed to sing a sunrise during the “Hosannahs” in the Sanctus and Benedictus. This Requiem was suffused with light and radiant optimism from the start. Gabriel Jackson interspersed the traditional movements of the Latin Mass with poetry from other cultures and spiritual traditions, to give a broader perspective. The English language passages were more emotional than the more objective Latin movements, and the composer tried to give each piece its distinctive character. He included the imitations of nature sounds and stutter rhythms, particularly in Epitaph by Wiradjuri man, Kevin Gilbert. The Mass ended in the peaceful Lux aeterna and a beautiful spoken quote from Mohican Chief Aupumut.

As the light dimmed outside, our hearts were filled with internal light, inspired by the beautiful singing we had just had the privilege to hear.

Sketches: Heidi Hereth