VOX choir’s radiant young voices inspire

Childhood and the joys and fears of parenthood were the twin themes of a concert showcasing Sydney Philharmonia’s superb junior choir VOX.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs VOX with music director Elizabeth Scott. Picture: Keith Saunders

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The carefree innocence and fragility of childhood and the joys and fears of parenthood were the twin themes running through an hour-long concert of songs showcasing Sydney Philharmonia’s junior choir VOX and their excellent soloists.

Appropriately called Wonder, the recital was conducted by the choir’s musical director Elizabeth Scott and ranged over Latvian lullabies — one of them by young Australian composer Ella Macens, who was in the audience — nursery rhymes and three powerful but very different songs about losing a son.

Australian composer Nigel Westlake wrote Nasce la gioia mia (My joy is born) for his son Eli who was killed in a road rage incident in 2010. Just before he died Eli had been listening to his father’s most recent work, Missa Solis, an orchestral piece dedicated to the sun, which Westlake then adapted as a requiem for Eli.

As well as grief there is joy in Westlake’s work and VOX’s fresh, radiant tone and precision pinned the audience back in their seats.

POWERFUL

Welsh composer Karl Jenkins adapted the hymn stabat mater, which conveys Mary’s grief over the death of her son Jesus, and his descending folk-like vocal lines were given added piquancy by shifts from English to Hebrew, Aramaic and Latin to emphasise the universality of the central theme.

But the most powerful of the three works — and the dramatic highlight of the concert — was American composer Eric Whitacre’s stunning When David Heard from the Biblical tale of King David and his son Absalom.

It was impossible not to be moved as it started in a monotone moan “my son, my son” and built to an unbearable discordant shout, before fragmenting into numb shock and finally a ululating finale.

On a lighter side VOX treated the audience to a couple of songs by Australian composer Martin-Wesley Smith with some witty lyrics from his twin brother Peter. Although 40 years old, they still charm with their combination of children’s fun with a strong environmental message — remember the great ocean outfall debate? — still prove irresistible with their doo-wop vibe.

And what better way to finish a program called Wonder than with Stevie Wonder’s Isn’t She Lovely, written after the birth of his daughter Aisha.

DETAILS:

● CONCERT: Wonder — VOX (Sydney Philharmonia Choirs)

● WHERE: Utzon Room, Sydney Opera House

● WHEN: Saturday, March 24