Oxford Liedertafel: St John's College Chapel

3:13pm Wednesday 27th August 2008

Liedertafel? Translating as "Song Table", Oxford Liedertafel's website reveals that it's a 19th-century German name for a group of male singers who would meet each week to eat, drink, and make music. Whether Oxford Liedertafel emulates the dining practices of its predecessors is not mentioned, but the group's precise, clear vocal delivery certainly didn't suggest any alcoholic indulgences.

Appropriately, the group - Stephen Burrows (countertenor), Nick Hewlett (tenor), Matthew Vine (tenor), and Duncan Saunderson (bass) - began with the Kyrie and Gloria from Byrd's Mass for 4 Voyces. The Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Die from this neat and concise work followed later, interspersed with other music. Schubert's Salve Regina, for instance, drew a nice range of tone colours from this well-matched, thoroughly professional group of singers, who seem able to phrase and deliver the longest of vocal lines without ever needing to draw breath. There was an excellent example, too, of understated, but still very evident, drama in the rarely performed Lamentations by Antoine Brumel.

Oxford Liedertafel is nothing if not versatile - the second half was more lightweight, and romantic. Beginning with John Dowland's Come again! Sweet love doth now invite, progressing through Horsley's melodious Slow fresh fount, and an unashamedly sentimental rendering of Parry's Love wakes and weeps, Liedertafel ended with a close harmony arrangement of Lennon and McCartney's Michelle.

But there was more. St John's has installed a new organ, commissioned from French builder Bernard Aubertin. Some colourful reed stops were demonstrated by organist Julian Littlewood in Marin Marais's Fantasia and Chaconne, before he moved on to a "Pièce d'orgue" by Bach - strangely, the actual piece involved, the magisterial Fantasia in G, BWV 572, remained unannounced in print, or from the platform. The performance itself didn't quite take off as it should, but the instrument sounds good for Bach, with plenty of beefy stops to handle a big tune, and a bright response from the upper registers.

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