There are many ways to celebrate a 70th Birthday, but Martin Gent's concert must be one of the most amazing. The Lady Chapel of Ely Cathedral was packed, for the audience rightly anticipated a concert of rare beauty.
The evening began with an illuminating talk by Paul Trepte in which he highlighted the way in which the selected pieces matched perfectly the unique acoustic of the Lady Chapel.
The audience was spellbound as the concert opened with one of the th
ree choirs singing the beginning of "Alta Trinita" (Anon) 'off stage'. This choir was soon joined by the other two choirs from either side of the Chapel making the audience central to the beautiful sounds they were creating.
It was as though we were witness to a family of friends who shared with us their joy of music making and their appreciation of the best of unaccompanied choral music as they performed it with phenomenal skill.
The programme included works of different nationalities, ranging from traditional English to Russian, Hungarian and Italian. The softest notes of "If ye love me" by Tallis were beautifully centred. In "Ave Verum Corpus" by Byrd and in "Hosanna to the Son of David" by Weelkes the choirs revelled in the dramatic qualities. One of the highlights of the evening was undoubtedly "Bogoroditsye dyevo" by Rachmaninov. In this piece the voices filled the Lady Chapel with magnificent, rich harmonies that were permeated with a sustained magnitude that seemed to have an external, infinite life of its own. We were transfixed.
There were shorter, lighter gems such as the delightful "Canon of Peace" (Anon) and "A Little Child" by Woods and a joyful encore: "Rock my Soul ..." The declarative nature of Tippett's arrangement of "Go Down Moses" was very effectively captured.
There were also very demanding works: The contrasting colours and expressiveness of Poulenc's "Vinea mea electa", the sheer beauty and imagery of Kodaly's "Evening Song", the mammoth tensions of "Popule meus" by Bardos and the excitement and radiant clarity of his "Libera me" were all wonderfully explored.
The culmination of the evening was Gabrieli's "Plaudite, psallite" sung by the three choirs from three sides of the Lady Chapel and conducted by three different conductors. The additional conductors who enhanced the programme were Howard Williams, Peter Hunt and Matthew Rudd. The highly accomplished soloists were Amanda Crawley, Simon Adams, Audrey Dean and Martin Kenward.
As the concluding notes resounded and the three conductors synchronised their final strokes perfectly, the Lady Chapel rang with the enthusiastic applause of a delighted audience. An amusing talk by the Dean of Ely Cathedral, informed us that this triumphant event raised in the region of £7,000 for the Cathedral Music Appeal.
Such success was undoubtedly due to Martin Gent's engaging personality and his expertise as a conductor and a singer which brought together a community of some of the finest musicians and the support of Cathedral staff, ADeC and many others. This was indeed a unique and wonderful birthday celebration.
