Sardinian Choir

Several of the choirs taking part in the West London Sangestevne were giving concerts on the Sunday afternoon, and I went to the one at St. John's Holland Road, which featured three choirs this time - the Jugendchor des Musikgymbastiums Schwerin from Germany, Immediate Voices from London and Coro Polifonico Santu Nigola from Sardiania, who had all previously performed at the Sangestevne at St. matthew's Church in Ealing Common on the Saturday.

After enduring the hard pews on Friday evening, this evening I took a large cushion, which made an enormous difference to my comfort.

First on were Immediate Voices, which are in fact a local choir, consisting of members of staff of Immediate Media, who are based in Brook Green.   Mostly young, they sang a variety of pieces, but nothing spectacular, although I was moved to ask the conductor if they had people from outside the company.   Unfortunately, they don't, as they rehearse in their lunch-hour.

Second on was a Sardinian choir, Coro Polificono Santu Nigola, consisting of all largely older men dressed, apart from one individual, in matching olive green corduroy trousers and jackets.   They all very well-built and swarthy and looked ratherArab, reflecting, as I discovered later on looking up the hisotry of Sardinia on the Internet, their origins to a large extent in north Africa.   They were quite unlike the people that one normally associates with Italy, even southern Italy.

But it was their singing which was particularly memorable.   All their pieces were in their own Sardinian language, hence the "Santu Nigola" instead of "Santa Nicola", and they were all absolutley beautiful and haunting, and quite unlike traditional northern European music.   There was a hint of the Middle East underlying everything they sang; but at the same time the music had much in common with European Church music.  

Also, instead of standing in rows when they sang, with the conductor in front, they gathered around in a tight circle with the conductor, singing to each other rather than to the audience, but with powerful voices that were clearly audible at a distance.

Throughout the performance, one of thier  supporters wandered around the church taking photographs of them, sometimes wandering almost up to the high altar to get the shot he wanted.   the fact that he was behind the choir and clearly visible to the audience didn't seem to both him - not them.   They just kept singing away.

I looked the choir up on the Internet when i got home, to learn more about them and their music, but unfortunatley they do not have a website, and the only mention of them seemed to be in connection with the sangestevne.

Last on was the Jugendchor des Musikgymbasiums Schwerin, a youth choir of almost equal numbers of girls and boys, all very smartly dressed, with the boys in dark suits and white shirts and the girls in long blue skirts, white blouses and blue scarves wrapped around their necks with the two ends hanging in front.   They all looked very serious and sang beautifully, although for some reason they missed a couple of items out of the programme.

A lost enjoyable evening,