Language of the Baroque, St. Paul’s Church, Birmingham - Biennial Baroque 2025: Royal Birmingham Conservatoire’s Ex Cathedra Scholars Ensemble, Friday 18th July, 5☆☆☆☆☆, Reviewe: Paul Gray.

Photo courtesy of Ex Cathedra.

Language of the Baroque, St. Paul’s Church, Birmingham - Biennial Baroque 2025: Royal Birmingham Conservatoire’s Ex Cathedra Scholars Ensemble, Friday 18th July,

5☆☆☆☆☆. Review: Paul Gray

“A captivating selection of vocal ensemble music from across Europe and South America in the attractive setting of one of the city’s historic churches.”

Ritual (1631) Hanac pachap cussicuinin
Francisco Hernàndez Sancta Maria, é!
Juan de Araujo Los coflades de la estleya
Diego José de Salazar ¡Salga el torillo hosquillo!

Alessandro Melani Litanie per la Beata Vergine ‘Le Ricche’
Claudio Monteverdi O Jesu mea vita
Barbara Strozzi Che si può fare [soloist: Beth Stirling]

Marc-Antoine Charpentier Transfige dulcissime Jesu

Orlando Gibbons Blessed are all they that fear the Lord
Henry Purcell Jehova quam multi sunt hostes mei [soloists: Daniel Marles, OIiver Barker]

Heinrich Schütz Selig sind die Toten
JS Bach Komm, Jesu, komm; Aria

One of the great developmental ideas of founder and musical director of Ex Cathedra, Jeffrey Skidmore, has been the creation of the Ex Cathedra Scholars. The Scholars are, as the choir’s publicity material says, stipend holders:

…….awarded to the UK’s most promising young singers, musicians who have recently completed their formal education and are at, or near, the beginning of their professional careers. This scheme is open to singers from across the country, and the successful candidates receive financial support

And it has been an exciting year for the Scholars, a year that has seen a tremendous sense of maturation, refinement and confidence within the group. The sound these mostly young singers make is, well, yes, young,but there is also great attention to detail, tightness of ensemble and excellence of diction.

As this concert was given as an integral part of the international Biennial Baroque Conference 2025 at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, the programme took us on a whistlestop tour of some of the delights of choral music of the Baroque from a variety of countries, ranging from South America, to England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

In many ways this was a kind of Baedeker Guide to the choral music of the Baroque, with glimpses into some of the highlights and varieties of expression and interpretation on a country-by-country basis – from the gloriously melismatic & dancelike Litanie per la Beata Vergine ‘Le Ricche’ by Alessandro Melani, and the exquisite O Jesu mea vita by Claudio Monteverdi; to the decadent excesses of French Baroque ornamentation in Marc-Antoine Charpentier Transfige dulcissime Jesu; to the mostly protestant pieces from England and Germany, by composers such as Gibbons, Purcell, Schütz and JS Bach.

The final piece in this concert was JS Bach’s Komm, Jesu, komm; aria. This is a motet for double choir, possibly composed for a funeral, and Bach’s only motet without a biblical text. Instead, Bach sets a poem by Paul Thymich, and, unusually, the motet is not closed by a chorale, but by a deeply expressive aria.

This is a challenging piece of music, with the choir divided in two parts to make for a double choir. There is a wonderful use of antiphonal effects in the interplay between the two choirs – sometimes called polychorality. This technique is reminiscent of the same kind of treatments found in works written for double choir for Basilica San Marco di Venezia (and elsewhere) by composers such as Willaert, Monteverdi and Giovanni Gabrieli.

The Ex Cathedra Scholars performed this complex work with artistry and skill. There was great clarity in the short fugato section, and tender beauty in the expression of the sentiment of the text in the concluding aria. Here, the theme is of death as a happy moment when man is released from the tiredness of earthly life to confide in Jesus as the way to eternal life.

The Scholars created a sense of utter beauty in this final aria. Every individual voice was perfectly blended into one harmonious whole. This served as a deeply moving conclusion to a truly fascinating concert.

EX CATHEDRA & ROYAL BIRMINGHAM CONSERVATOIRE Scholars Ensemble | Jeffrey Skidmore, conductor | Elizabeth Kenny, theorbo | Christopher Bucknall, organ | Simone Rebello, percussion

For full names and profiles of members of the Ex Cathedra Scholars visit:

https://excathedra.co.uk/about-us/ex-cathedra-scholars/ex-cathedra-scholars-2024-25/