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Prayer for the Living | Adelaide Festival 2022 review

For a third successive year the Festival concluded with a large choral concert but this was a diverse collection of pieces, out of which a dramatic arc was constructed.

Adelaide Festival 2022. Prayer for the Living. Picture: Andrew Beveridge
Adelaide Festival 2022. Prayer for the Living. Picture: Andrew Beveridge

Prayer for the Living

Choral/Classical music

ADELAIDE FESTIVAL

Festival Theatre

March 20

For the third year in a row the Adelaide Festival has concluded with a large scale choral concert.

Previously it has been a single major work – Mozart’s Requiem, Tippett’s A Child of Our Time – but this was a diverse collection of pieces, out of which the dramatic arc of the performance was constructed.

The first half was predominantly sombre, reinforced by imagery of the manifold human crises that afflict the contemporary world.

Adelaide Festival 2022. Prayer for the Living. Picture: Andrew Beveridge
Adelaide Festival 2022. Prayer for the Living. Picture: Andrew Beveridge

But the program had, if not exactly a Hollywood ending, at least a more upbeat and, depending on your religious convictions or lack of them, consoling conclusion.

Central to the first half were two powerful works by Latvian composer Peteris Vasks. Prayer for a Mother featured the lovely voice of soprano Stacey Alleaume, who sang with heartfelt sentiment and exquisite control.

Dona Nobis Pacem is an intense and compelling piece. The choirs – assembled from the Elder Conservatorium Chorale and the Graduate Singers under the direction of Carl Crossin – sang superbly.

The long, sustained final note, disappearing into silence, was spine-tingling.

Tenor Nicholas Jones gave a moving account of Ravel’s Kaddish, and a rare performance of Lili Boulanger’s Old Buddhist Prayer focused attention on this gifted composer who left the world too young.

Adelaide Festival 2022. Prayer for the Living. Picture: Andrew Beveridge
Adelaide Festival 2022. Prayer for the Living. Picture: Andrew Beveridge

The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Benjamin Northey, were excellent throughout the concert.

After interval came the neoclassical Gloria by Francis Poulenc. Stacey Alleaume shone as the soloist in a work that made a striking contrast with the first half. The whole concert was accompanied by projections behind the choir.

They were expertly done and probably enhanced the experience for many people, although I found myself looking away from them sometimes in order to focus on the music.

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