Sydney Chamber Choir Gives World Premiere of 'The Greatest of These' by Dr Anne Cawrse
On Saturday 5 July, the Sydney Chamber Choir celebrated its 50th anniversary with a Gala Concert in the City Recital Hall, Angel Place, conducted by Artistic Director Sam Allchurch. Celebrating the beauty and thrill of new music, the program featured the world premiere performances of five pieces specially commissioned by the Sydney Chamber Choir, including The Greatest of These by our Adjunct Lecturer in Composition, Dr Anne Cawrse.
'... a luminous setting of the well-known Corinthians passage, "Love is patient, love is kind." In Cawrse's hands the familiar text became newly tender and introspective. Rests were treated like breath, letting meaning linger. She draws on a wide palette of choral textures, from solo lines and intimate vocal clusters to rich, full-bodied close harmony, casting glints of colour and light like stained glass in a sunlit wedding chapel.'
– ClassikON
'... a beautifully-paced contemplative adaptation of verses from I Corinthians and the famous verse which begins 'Love is patient, love is kind'. Cawrse used pauses to put space around the phrases, emphasising the wisdom of the message.'
The Sydney Chamber Choir's 50th-anniversary concert culminated with a performance of Paul Stanhope's nine-movement Requiem (dedicated to the late Richard Gill and Russell Mills), featuring Elder Conservatorium alumna Brooke Window as soprano soloist alongside English tenor Richard Butler and a quintet of instrumentalists.
'Window's sweet and smooth soprano featured in Tree Grave, a setting of Oodgeroo Noonucal's poem describing the procession and tree burial of an Aboriginal man wrapped in the traditional bark [...]. A highlight of the work is the unaccompanied Agnus Dei, which starts with Window singing offstage, her solo grace notes being taken up by the sopranos and altos.'
– Limelight