It is not often that we get the chance to hear 550 a cappella voices, so that even for the Proms this was something of a rare occasion. The BBC Singers and Bach Choir were joined by Children’s Choirs from London Boroughs, the National Youth Choir and the Great Baddow High School Signing Choir for performances of Flame by Ben Parry and the world premiere of Bob Chilcott’s The Angry Planet.
Flame is a setting of a poem by Garth Bardsley which takes up the Buddhist idea of a flame multiplying as it divides rather than growing weaker. The setting opens in almost plainchant mode and as the flame grows so does the intensity of the writing and the range of voices and vocal lines involved. The climax at so to light the world reminded me of the 40 part motet in its uplifting and swirling voices. It is a glorious outpouring and one which should be taken up by choral societies of any substance.
Bob Chilcott’s The Angry Planet tries, and for most of the time succeeds, in combining a wide range of styles to suit the wide range of available voices. The four sections follow similar patterns, opening with the denser and more complex writing for adult voices and then moving to a more approachable style with easy and highly memorable melodic lines. This structure is mirrored in the text by Charles Bennett which works in the opposite direction. The adults tend to have the more overt and obvious lines while the children’s text is frequently cryptic and puzzling.
The impact is impressive, and the text clear throughout. Gentle rocking rhythms support ideas of the sea and of destruction by water. The third movement includes a finely written solo for soprano – sung with ease and purity by Laurie Ashworth – and an effective use of the Latin requiem text as parts of the choir intone the list of recently extinct animals.
David Hill’s handling of the large forces was excellent throughout and both works conveyed a high level of professionalism from all involved.
Unfortunately this was more than can be said for the audience. A prom with children’s voices is not necessarily a children’s prom, and this one certainly wasn’t. Nobody appeared to have told the families in the audience. I had two babies close to me who vied with each other to see who could cause the most interruption and parents seemed to be allowed to wander in and out of the hall at will. It was all too obvious which families were related to those on stage as they chatted and passed food during the ‘adult’ sections of the score and only made any effort to listen when their children were singing. This might be acceptable for a school nativity but it is surely not so for an advertised Prom concert? I needed to listen to the recording on the radio of the third section once I returned, as most of the soprano solo was drowned out by crying from where I was sitting. We need young audiences, but we need young educated audiences, and this does not seem to me to be a good way to do it. BH