The Stellenbosch University choir delighted an enthusiastic audience packing the Stilbaai Community Hall on Saturday 22nd August. Their superb singing demonstrated why they are internationally acclaimed and have been invited to represent South Africa at the World Choir Games in China next year.The students’ response to André van der Merwe, their conductor, was impressive. He obviously has outstanding rapport with his choir, and he interacted warmly with the audience, highlighting aspects of the programme. This was much appreciated, although his rapid speech was indistinct from the back of the hall – and anyone not understanding Afrikaans would have been at a disadvantage.
The complex music chosen must have required intensive preparation. The choir sang from memory and very sensitively, especially in passages with sustained chords; and produced excellent dynamics. The balance between parts was mostly very good – they had obviously been trained to listen to each other. We enjoyed the treble-like quality of the female voices, and the timbre of the basses.
The programme was largely contemporary, except for a Heinrich Schütz setting of Psalm 98 which required cori spezzati – split choir – in this case into four, managed superbly by the choir. They also displayed great skill in coping with the dissonances characteristic of modern music as in the difficult works by the Phillipino composer, John Pamintuan. The juxtaposition of two versions of Ave Maria by contemporary Estonian and Polish composers was interesting.
The programme ended more lightheartedly with two South African volksliedjies, enjoyed by both students and audience, and a traditional Spiritual. Former choir members from the audience joined the choir for the encore.
John & Janet Stonier
