Town House, Inverness, 21 November 2012

TRYING to put a finger on why there has been such an explosion of new arts ventures arriving on the Highland scene over the past few years is a near impossible task.

BLOWING our own trumpet, the start-up of Hi-Arts and with it Northings has obviously been influential in making the population more aware of how the arts can enrich life. A period of European Union Objective One Development Status, Inverness being awarded city status, the appearance of a wave of community halls to mark the Millennium, all have helped to promote The Highlands as a desirable place to live.

Troilus Ensemble (photo Bob Dunsmore)

Ironically, while Eden Court was dark for extension and refurbishment, the “In Exile” programme opened up previously unused venues for smaller scale arts events all across the region, and these venues have been providing the birthing pools for these new arts ventures.

The most recent new arrival to enrich our lives is the Troilus Ensemble, a group of twenty-one professional and semi-professional singers brought together and trained by Reno Troilus, the countertenor who, with his wife Gail, settled in the Highlands four years ago as the ideal place to raise their family. The Ensemble has just presented its debut series and attracted a respectable audience of around one hundred for this performance in Inverness Town House.

Opening the concert was the beautiful Miserere by Gregorio Allegri, based on Psalm 51. It is a piece testing every voice in the range, especially the lead soprano who has to soar to top C several times. The Miserere was composed in the first half of the 17th century to be sung during Holy Week each year in the Sistine Chapel – and nowhere else, with the score being one of the most jealously guarded treasures of the Vatican library. However in 1770, the young Mozart heard it being sung, went home and wrote out all the parts with complete accuracy. Since then it has become a stalwart of the choral repertoire, and it enabled the members of the Troilus Ensemble to demonstrate all their a capella skills and the amount of hard work that they had put in.

It was the most substantial of the ten works that made up this debut programme as Reno Troilus took us all the way from the baroque period right up to the end of the 20th century and just into the 21st.

Next up was the soprano showpiece ‘Laudate Dominum’ from Mozart’s Solemn Vespers, K339, giving Kathleen Cronie a strong solo before the other members of the Ensemble joined her to bring the piece to its emotionally powerful close. Ständchen, or Serenade, by Schubert comes in a choice of three versions, all different and well-known, but Reno Troilus opted for the D920 lied for mezzo and male chorus. It was well sung, although a little more animation would not have gone amiss. After all, this is a song about a girl approaching her lover’s room!

Gabriel Fauré’s contributions to the evening were a pair of contrasting pieces, both fairly early works from his oeuvre. His Cantique de Jean Racine was a delightful but gentle crescendo by the full ensemble that was Fauré’s arrangement of Racine’s paraphrase of a traditional French hymn from the 17th century. Equally gentle but more passionate was Après un Rêve, as the solo soprano awakes from dreaming of her lover and calls on night to return so that she can dream some more.

The last work before the programme moved into the 20th century was the first of Brahms Op 104 partsongs for unaccompanied mixed choir. Nachtwache, or Night Vigil, drew on all the skills of the Troilus Ensemble as, although its seems relatively simple and is quite short, it is a piece of demanding antiphonal singing calling for, and getting, great accuracy from all concerned.

Stravinsky re-found his faith in the Russian Orthodox Church after he moved to Paris and, in 1932, arranged a charming version of the Ave Maria for unaccompanied choir, but with the men singing the dominant parts and the ladies providing something of a background continuo. Although less than two minutes in duration the part-song elements left a marginally ragged ending.

John Tavener set William Blake’s poem The Lamb to music for a cappella choir in an afternoon to celebrate his nephew’s third birthday. As might be expected in a song for a child, the ladies have the major roles, and the sopranos and altos of the Troilus Ensemble gave us a suitable rendition.

Two pieces by the distinguished Welsh composer Karl Jenkins that brought this one hour concert to a climax. ‘Sanctus’ from The Armed Man – A Mass for Peace is an imposing unison part of the overall work, and then for the finale an extract from his suite Adiemus – Dances of Time, when the Troilus Ensemble was asked to sing in an unintelligible language.

Overall an impressive debut for a vocal ensemble that has found a niche in the music scene in the Highlands. Generally, the singing was of a high standard but there is still a great deal of rehearsal needed before national level is achieved, and it is to be hoped that the size of audience that supported this debut will come out again next March when Reno Troilus plans to present a second series of performances.

© James Munro, 2012