Villa Maria Cantorum’s choral excellence

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33034, 29 September 1972, Page 10

Villa Maria Cantorum’s choral excellence

The Villa Maria Schola Cantorum, conducted by Rolf Just and accompanied by Wolfgang Just gave a lunchtime concert in the University Hall yesterday which charmed through its well-chosen pro- | gramme, and excited with its polished execution. The choir comprises about 80 fresh and I vital voices. The singers com|bine a remarkable degree of [tonal and rhythmic cohesion with great accuracy, and ' under Mr Just’s artistic direction serve faithfully the music ! they are called on to sing. A feature of the programme I was the evidence afforded not only of Kodaly's expert and intimate knowledge of the i young voice but also of ! Vernon Griffith’s equivalent [skill in this area. Kodaly’s “St Gregory’s Day,” a charming and humorous invocation to the great saint, is a difficult work with orchestral associations (if bagpipes can be said to aspire so highly). The choir shone in solving its problems. The three settings of folk-songs by Dr Griffiths are

melliflous in line and texture but they test the purity of sound at a choir’s disposal. This performance was near perfect. Few choral groups achieve the clarity of enunciation exhibited in the singing of Vaughan Williams’s “Winter” from his cantata, “The Four Seasons.” It is not easy to bring off, and this was a most creditable attempt to meet all its challenges of pitch, rhythm and melisma. With the Messrs Just, the girls of Villa Maria College occupy a position of considerable significance in school music. They purvey what to some is the unfashionable virtue of choral excellence. —J.A.R.

Drainlayers' Association.— The following were elected at the recent annual meeting of the Canterbury Master Drainlayers’ Association: President, Mr R. V. T. Borrer; vice-president, Mr F. P. Allison: immediate past president, Mr K. A. Maynard; secretary, Mr G. S. Gardner; executive, Messrs I. C. Wilson, T. R. Newfield, J. S. Rodgers, J. M. P. Ryan, B. Duncan, and T. P. H oiling.