Living in peace and harmonies

Anti-war oratorio ‘A Child of Our Time’ will open Cork choral festival, says Jo Kerrigan.

‘A Child of Our Time’ was sparked by the appalling events that led to the Nazi pogroms against the Jews

NEXT Wednesday’s opening gala of the Cork International Choral Festival promises to be dramatic. Michael Tippett’s emotion-stirring oratorio, ‘A Child of Our Time’, will be sung by the Fleischmann Choir with members of the Philharmonische Choir of Cologne, and the Cork School of Music Symphony Orchestra. Soloists will be Mary Hegarty, soprano; Bridget Knowles, contralto; Robin Tritschler, tenor; and Owen Gilhooly, baritone.

Opening the evening’s events will be the Band of the 1st Southern Brigade, playing works by Eric Coates, Gustav Holst and AJ Potter. The three-part Tippett oratorio will be conducted by Geoffrey Spratt, for his final appearance at the Cork festival.

‘A Child of Our Time’, composed as a fierce protest against inhumanity, was sparked by the appalling the events that led to the Kristallnacht pogroms against the Jews in Nazi Germany in 1938. Tippett had considered the Easter Rising in Dublin as his topic. Completed in 1941, the oratorio’s first performance was delayed, Tippett feeling that its plea for peace would clash with the war-like mood in Britain. When it was staged, at London’s Adelphi Theatre in 1944, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and Peter Pears as a soloist, it was hailed as the most important work by an English composer for years, and placed Tippett in the first rank of composers of his generation. Reminiscent in its structure of both Handel’s ‘Messiah’ and Bach’s ‘Passions’, the three-part oratorio extends out beyond the events of Nazi Germany, referencing the universality of persecution and suffering. Oppression, ‘justice’ through violence, and their consequences form the three parts of the work.

That the Cologne Philharmonic Choir is joining the Fleischmann Choir and the School of Music Symphony Orchestra adds meaning. The collaboration between the cities and choirs dates back 20 years, and there have been memorable joint concerts in both cities, such as Verdi’s ‘Requiem’ and Berlioz’s ‘Te Deum’. Later this year, the Fleischmann Choir will visit Cologne. “When you think that the Fleischmanns came from the lovely little town of Dachau, a place which has been overlaid with such horrific memories since, and when you think of what today’s Germans have to face in terms of the past, it matters so much that the Cologne choir are coming here to sing the Tippett oratorio with us,” says Spratt. “It’s all interlinked, all part of something far bigger.”

Spratt’s final time wielding the baton for the Fleischmann Choir, which he founded in 1992 in honour of the great composer whose name it bears, will be poignant. Spratt and Fleischmann were friends. “It was back in 1976 and I’d just finished my doctorate at Bristol,” says Spratt. “My professor said, ‘There is this rather eccentric chap at UCC, in Ireland, who’s looking for someone to work there for a year. I think you should go.’ So over I went and met Aloys. We hit it off immediately, and I never left.”

Spratt says of Fleischmann: “If he had been less generous of his time, working with so many different groups and companies, he would have been more widely recognised as the brilliant composer he really was, but, as it is, Cork and Ireland owe so much to him. When it came to forming the choir, and singing at the first choral festival after Aloys’ death, I approached the family and asked if I could use the name and they agreed. It was the most fitting honour I could think of.”

A glittering array of soloists has been assembled to front both choirs and orchestra on the Cork City Hall stage next Wednesday night: Mary Hegarty, Bridget Knowles, Robin Tritschler, and Owen Gilhooly.

“Oh, but it’s wonderful to be singing back in my home town, with so many friends from my days at the School of Music,” says Mary Hegarty, dashing to a rehearsal. “And to be part of this amazing oratorio is incredible. I started most of my own oratorio work with Geoffrey, and we’ve done so many things together. It’s going to be a huge experience for all of us next Wednesday night — and I think the audience will be swept away, as well.”

“It’s probably the most challenging piece we’ve ever staged,” says festival director, John Fitzpatrick. “But that’s what we do — push the boundaries outward and set ourselves new challenges every year.”

nThe 59th Cork International Choral Festival opening gala concert: Michael Tippett’s ‘A Child of Our Time’, Wed, May 1, City Hall, Cork, 8pm. Tickets from www.corkchoral.ie, or from the festival box office at the Everyman Palace Theatre, McCurtain Street, Cork, 021-4501673.