Music For Remembrance & The Durufle Requiem -New College Choir, Saturday 6 November

The tradition of choral singing that goes on behind high college walls almost every day during term times is one that has had its part in defining Oxford since the first colleges were founded. A visitor to the town, though, might find it a tradition often almost unremarked upon, Oxford’s general public seemingly grown immune to the special tradition’s magic and beauty. Not many cities offer quite the same consistently high-quality choral concerts in College chapel settings as beautiful. Oxford does, with Christ Church, New College and Magdalen College all boasting schools from which their boy choristers are drawn. And it’s a tradition worth rediscovering.
Saturday night saw the New College Choir in voice. They are well known for their recent recording Agnus Dei, which has sold more than 100,000 copies. Fourteen boy sopranos and fourteen male altos, tenors and basses drawn from College and Town led a discerning audience through aspects of remembrance in the first half of a concert that offered a range of choral works of the Austro-German school, including the beautiful Elgar Lux Aeterna. The second half featured Duruflé’s Requiem Mass. Of French style, this is a very different affair. The choir rendered the well-loved Gregorian chant opening sympathetically. Director Edward Higginbottom chose to perform the version with organ accompaniment. He certainly played fully on the introspective, liturgical aspects of this Mass, drawing from his choir sensitivity and nuance over drama and force.
The Magdalen College Choir is next in the choral tradition’s calendar, with a concert on 9thDecember in the University Church. They are offering a selection of music for Christmas and Advent. For the remembrance of times past, and for some heavenly song, it could be worth it!