Feature
A Baroque Christmas with the Australian Chamber Choir
The choir’s manager Elizabeth Anderson and director Douglas Lawrence tell us about how the choir has coped with the COVID-19 pandemic, the lessons of livestreaming, and how they managed to produce a new CD during the lockdowns.
by Angus McPherson on December 7, 2020
Choirs have been particularly hard-hit during the COVID-19 pandemic – how has the Australian Chamber Choir been coping?
Elizabeth Anderson: After the initial sinking feeling, I started thinking about what we might be able to do for our singers and for our listeners. There were plans A, B C, and D and the details kept changing, but the basic outline remained pretty much the same. There were two things that we could do: livestreamed concerts and mining our archive to produce and release videos and sound recordings.
How did you manage to produce a CD during the lockdowns?
EA: It was a fluke! At first it was just an idea and it seemed a bit far-fetched, as everything was closed. But during Melbourne’s second lockdown I was short of things to do. There were recordings from a 2018 Christmas concert and from our 2019 European tour. I spoke with Martin Wright, the Director of Move records and he told me that he too was a bit short of work and would be pleased to fast track the production of a new CD if it could be done during the lockdown. The stumbling block would most likely be how to get the CD printed and delivered. That problem was solved when we discovered that the printing company we normally use for CD production had remained open during the lockdown in order to produce documents for the Victorian government.
What music did you choose to feature on the CD and why?
EA: Our Baroque Christmas CD is a good example of the kind of music that is central to the ACC’s repertoire. As Maxim Boon wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald, “there are riches to be found in obscure corners of the choral canon. A Baroque Christmas offers a program almost entirely drawn from these lesser-known seasonal works, championing a sublime repertoire that is all too often neglected”. Throughout history, music for the Christmas season has represented the lighter side of serious music. The celebration of Christmas centres around children and so serious composers would compete with each other to produce the most entertaining music to amuse adults and children alike at this time of year. There are some very well-known works on the CD, such as Bach’s In dulci jubilo and Praetorius Es ist ein Ros entsprungen. These works share with all the works on the CD an infectious sense of joy and fun.
The choir has been presenting livestreamed concerts across the year – what has that experience been like?
Douglas Lawrence: On Good Friday, in partnership with the Melbourne Digital Concert Hall, we presented a livestreamed concert with a quartet of singers. Singing with 1.5 metres between singers in the dry acoustic of Melbourne’s Athenaeum Theatre was rather challenging. We were delighted that Mandeville Hall Toorak offered us the use of their chapel, which, in the last three livestreamed concerts, has transformed the sound of the singers and portrayed the beauty of their voices and formidable musicianship.
What are the most important lessons you’ve learned since the first concert?
DL: Well, we learn constantly. I guess that programming is the continuum. We want to sing the finest music of 500 or so years but with that we also need to entertain. There must be a balance. It is great to sing the music of a perhaps obscure composer but that needs to be followed with something that the listener knows and loves. Balance is the active word. Ancient, Renaissance, Baroque, Romantic and then of course new works. We complement the new works with more familiar repertoire. This embraces the new music, in a sense welcomes it into the family of music lovers.
Your Christmas concert will be your fifth livestreamed concert – what did you want to keep in mind when putting together the repertoire for this one?
DL: It’s necessary to choose music that suits the voices of those involved. Mind you, the singers in our resource group have such talent that any period or style of music will be understood and well performed. I do think from time to time “ah, yes, that is perfect for so-and-so’s voice”. It’s really lovely when that happens. As for the repertoire for this Christmas gig. Wow! There is so much to choose from. We start with Renaissance music telling the story of the angel’s visit to Mary, the birth of Jesus, the visit of the three wise men and with Willian Byrd at his astounding best, describing the mystery of it all. Then we travel through the Baroque period, Preatorius, Eccard, Gumpelzhaimer, Luther, Bach and then take a great leap to a riveting work by Brett Dean – Now Comes The Dawn, written in 2007.
What’s next for the choir?
EA: We are all very excited about singing together again as a choir. Our subscribers have been very supportive. Most have not requested refunds, but have simply asked us to let them know when the concerts are re-scheduled. We’re now finalising dates with our venues and our regional partners and will soon relaunch our 2020 season as our 2021 season. When the first lockdown happened in March 2020, I was finalising arrangements for our European tour of July 2021. We had a service and two concerts at Bach’s church – St Thomas’ Leipzig and a concert at St Martin in the Fields. We now plan to reschedule the 2021 tour to 2022.
The Australian Chamber Choir’s new album A Baroque Christmas can be purchased here.
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The choir’s livestreamed concert, Christmas with the ACC: In Dulci Jubilo! is streaming on Sunday 13 December at 5PM or available on demand