Music

Songs of Farewell

Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh

Miranda Heggie

four stars

DEVISED by conductor and Scottish Chamber Orchestra chorusmaster Gregory Batsleer and stage director Jack Furness, this version of Hubert Parry’s choral song cycle Songs of Farewell was a poignant and emotive reflection on the nature of human life and death. The chorus stood at the front of the church with an elongated podium extending into the nave on which sat an armchair surrounded by various books, where actors Benny Young and Rebecca Wilkie took turns to read from a range of authors musing on the human condition, including William Shakespeare, Graham Green, Carl Jung and Virginia Woolf. Their dialogue was effective and persuasive, the juxtaposition of words and music carefully considered. Furness wrote in his programme note that "there is no great point being made", and that appeared to be precisely point: that life is made up of questions, discourse and contemplation, far more than it is answers.

The sound from the chorus was full, warm and bursting with energy. The connection felt by the singers with the music was wholly evident, and they were solid in their delivery as they moved around, and eventually off, the stage to envelop the audience, with Batsleer conducting elegantly from the pulpit.

A very short first half of anthems and organ music by Henry Purcell served as a prelude to all this, showcasing the chorus in their more usual mode. While the nuts and bolts of the polyphony was down to a tee, the soul of the music could perhaps have shone more. That was in stark contrast to the second half, which saw Parry’s work being so tenderly, genuinely and intimately portrayed, in this memorable and very special performance.