“THE CHOIR OF CHOICE”

An article by John Rogers

JOHN ROGERS has enjoyed an association with RMC which began as long ago as 1973, when he recorded the choir’s very first Annual Concert. It took place in Crosskeys College hall under the baton of the choir’s first conductor, Les James. (The hall, demolished in 2010, was the venue for a number of memorable performances in its fifty year existence.)

John had asked if he could record the concert as he was very interested in both music and recording, and the choir’s presence was a good chance for him to try out some new recording equipment he had recently acquired. The result was an LP containing all the choir items and lasting some 50 minutes, a most valuable piece of archive material that we now have on CD.

It was a number of years before John was behind the tape machine again, with his now familiar headphones. This time it was for the 1987 annual concert, and at the Risca Leisure Centre. By then, I had become a colleague of John’s at Crosskeys College (where he taught English) as I had taken up the music post there in 1981.

Our joint enthusiasm for music provided the foundation of a long-standing friendship, covering a period which has seen John record many of RMC’s annual concerts, and other special occasions including, more recently, annual theme shows.

In 2018, he, with his recording colleague Glenn Powell, videoed that year’s theme show, Risca Male Choir Sings the Movies, which has been published on DVD and of which you can find extracts here

John continues to take a great interest in the musical life of the choir, and apart from producing his wonderful recordings, he has always been most helpful in proofreading programmes, posters and other material meant for public view.

John is an avid listener to classical music on both CD and radio, but particularly at live concerts, which he attends whenever he can. He is also a devotee of live straight theatre, especially performances of Shakespeare, at various venues, but most consistently at Stratford upon Avon’s Royal Shakespeare Theatre, which has been a favourite haunt for more than fifty years!

We’re most grateful that he has taken time to produce this interesting article, reflecting on some of the special works and projects for which Risca has become well known.

Martin Hodson MBE
Music Director Emeritus

As Martin mentions in his introduction, I was privileged to record the very first Annual Concert of Risca Male Voice Choir (as it then was) nearly 50 years ago. And, picking up again from 1987, there have been very few that I have missed, in the ensuing years. For a much smaller but still significant amount of time, I and my headphones have also been present each Christmas at the choir’s theme shows, which reveal another side of the choristers’ rightly-famed versatility.

With all of that experience to draw upon, it’s easy for me to see why RMC has been, in many situations and in a variety of ways, ‘the choir of choice’.

Look first, for example, at the times when RMC was approached to feature in some special project or event. Over the last four decades, there have been many instances of this kind. These have included invitations to appear in television programmes – from the early days of HTV’s All Kinds of Everything to the BBC’s Millennium Songs of Praise and others along the way, including ‘something completely different’ in the form of Can They Hack It? for BBC Wales in 2002.

The choir quickly established a reputation for excellence and this meant that, apart from its normal diary of concerts, it was increasingly chosen to take part in other prestigious – and demanding – projects.

Two that come immediately to mind are occasions when the Risca choristers were privileged to work with Bryn Terfel. The first was in 1999, when they worked alongside the internationally renowned soloist and the orchestra of Welsh National Opera, in recording a CD (still the standard format in those days!) of Welsh traditional songs. The other, in 2006, saw them appearing once more in the company of Bryn Terfel, and on this occasion other major soloists, for a public performance of Beethoven’s 9th (‘Choral’) symphony. To know that, once again, RMC had been specifically chosen to participate in both these projects was a real source of pride for the men of Risca.

Welsh Composer, Mervyn Burtch MBE

Another memorable public appearance for the choir was in the exciting and dramatic Beowulf and Grendel, with its challenging harmonies and rhythms, the music written by Mervyn Burtch to exploit the unique sound of Risca Male Choir, and including an extended solo for RMC’s prizewinning baritone soloist Andrew Jenkins.

And pursuing the Welsh connection, there was David Wynne’s Owain ab Urien: Risca Male Choir was again the group specifically chosen to perform what, in its complete 3 movement form, was effectively the world premiere of this impressive and technically testing work, for male choir, brass and percussion. It was a tribute both to the choristers and to their inspirational Music Director that they approached the piece with sustained commitment and determination. The resulting live recording of their performance is proof of the remarkable results achieved by singers and instrumentalists alike.

Each of these projects, and others, had their own hurdles, and rewards. Of them all, I particularly remember the excitement that was generated when, in 2008, the choir was chosen by Welsh National Opera to be a key component in Carbon 12, a choral symphony with music by Errollyn Wallen and words by John Binias, tracing the impact of the discovery of coal on the economy and identity of Wales. Martin Hodson has said that, along with Owain ab Urien, Carbon 12 was ‘as difficult a work as we had ever tackled’.

Once again, though, absolute commitment and effort won the day: the four public performances were highly successful and both the composer and the librettist wrote to the choir, expressing their thanks in glowing terms. Errollyn Wallen, indeed, went further, composing a piece specially for the choir; and she was a guest at the 2009 annual concert, to hear its first performance. Concerning Carbon 12 itself, Martin was also proud to be able to tell the choir the comment of Carlo Rizzi, the energetic and engaging former Music Director of WNO, who conducted most of the performances. Speaking to Martin as rehearsals concluded, he had said ‘Your men are very good: this work is not easy’. Rizzi had a reputation as a very demanding taskmaster, so to earn such a compliment from him meant a great deal.

The whole project was another example of a situation in which the choristers of Risca had been chosen, then presented with a considerable challenge; and as always, they ultimately delivered.

Of course, involvement in any major event becomes even more special when both the format and content of the project have come from an idea which began within the choir’s own rehearsal room.

Such was the case in December 1983, when HTV broadcast A Partridge in a Pear Tree. Closely based on one of Risca’s aforementioned theme shows, it took three days of intensive work to record, at the studios in Cardiff. It had been first performed, as the choir’s Christmas Theme Show, in December 1982.

An illustration of the ostensibly less serious side of Risca’s repertoire, these theme shows allow the choir to demonstrate its ability to ‘perform competently in all styles’, which someone once said was the hallmark of true quality in the creative field. (Incidentally, the final months of 1982, when this particular show was being conceived, had already been a busy and successful time for the choristers as, in November, they had won the prestigious Male Choir of the Year competition at St David’s Hall in Cardiff. This was a remarkable achievement, not only because it happened so early in Martin Hodson’s relationship with the choir, but also as, in winning, they had beaten the highly reputed Froncysyllte Male Choir into second place.)

In a different category there were those occasions when the choir commissioned new works from Welsh composers. That they had no hesitation in accepting these commissions – and then obviously wrote with the special qualities of the choir clearly in mind – is another valued compliment to the men of Risca.

One current Welsh composer who has created a number of works in response to commissions from the choir is Newport-born Richard Roderick Jones. Fittingly, at Martin’s farewell concert as Music Director in 2015, Richard was present to hear a performance of his 3-movement Psalmody, a work long associated with Risca Male Choir.

The idiom of some of the commissioned pieces that were presented over the years was often, understandably, unfamiliar; and hours of concentrated effort in rehearsal might be necessary before Martin was content that the necessary standard of performance had been reached. Ultimately, though, the sense of ‘a job well done’ – often confirmed by public expressions of thanks from the composer – would be the choir’s reward.

And in concluding this brief survey, I can do no better than quote one of Richard’s own comments about this remarkable choir: ‘I have written three works for Risca Male Choir and its performances have always been peerless... This is an outstanding musical ensemble in every respect.’