Town Hall, Huddersfield
The Huddersfield Choral Society may still be best known for its annual performances of Messiah, but this season it has been celebrating its 175th anniversary with much more than just Handel. The last concert in its winter season included a British premiere of Jonathan Harvey's Messages, which was commissioned by the Berlin Radio Choir and first performed by them three years ago. The text is simply a list of names, of around 150 angels from Judaic and Persian mythologies, from Amael to Zuhair.
In this concert the 25-minute piece was sandwiched between Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms and Bruckner's E minor Mass, works that, like Harvey's, have no solo vocal roles and unconventional orchestrations: Stravinsky does without violins, Bruckner with no strings at all. Harvey more or less takes over Stravinsky's scoring, but grafts on to it the equivalent of a baroque continuo group of struck and plucked instruments.
In many ways, Messages could be seen as an exercise in managing climaxes as the densely woven choral textures move from one level of heaven to the next, whether driven by brass instruments arranged spatially around them, by excitable woodwind, or the exotic soundworld of the continuo. But it's never overdone: the textures remain beautifully refined, the pacing perfectly natural, the ending magical.
The Choral Society's conductor laureate Martyn Brabbins had been forced to withdraw from the concert, and was replaced by its chorusmaster, Joseph Cullen. He and his choir gave Messages a glowing, iridescent performance, though a more analytical acoustic with a smaller chorus following the work's heavenly journey might be easier.