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History of Goldsmiths Choral Union
A Fresh Approach. 1973–1982
Brian Wright became Musical Director of the GCU in 1973, providing a challenging programme for the choir, which was gradually acquiring a more youthful aspect under his direction. Bach's St. John Passion in April, was followed by Honegger's original chamber version of Le Roi David at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in July, while in August the choir collaborated with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Choral Society and BBC Singers in a Promenade performance of Schoenberg's Gurrelieder, conducted by Pierre Boulez. This was recorded later in the year by CBS and won a Grand Prix du Disque. October 1973 saw another collaboration with the BBC – the first broadcast performance of Havergal Brian's Symphony No. 4 at Alexandra Palace. The year was rounded off in its traditional way with carols and Messiah.
1976 was a sad year for the GCU, for on 2 December its founder, Frederick Haggis, died at the age of 90. The Christmas performance of Messiah was dedicated to his memory, and members of the choir sang at his memorial service the following February.
A New Era
The Royal Albert Hall (Source of image: BBC Website
In October 1977 members of the choir took part in the London première of Liszt's Christus, under Brian Wright's direction. The occasion revealed Brian's passion for large-scale works of the 19th and 20th centuries and his ability to marshal large musical forces with both effect and relish. The performance won critical acclaim and was repeated at the Proms the following July in the Royal Albert Hall (shown in the photo). In November 1978, members of the GCU formed the Echo Choir for the first complete performance of Malcolm Williamson's Mass of Christ the King at Westminster Cathedral, given in the presence of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. The same year saw the first of the GCU carol concerts in aid of the Save the Children Fund at the Royal Albert Hall.
The Royal Albert Hall was also the venue, in 1979, for a performance of Britten's War Requiem. Two of the soloists, the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya and the tenor Peter Pears, were the composer's original choices for the roles they took in the work. The third was the baritone Thomas Hemsley, who was no stranger to the piece either. Soloists and choir were accompanied by the Royal Philarmonic Orchestra, and the concert was a moving experience for everyone involved. Another acclaimed performance was Beethoven's Missa Solemnis at the Royal Festival Hall in May 1979.
In that same year of 1979, a contingent of singers travelled to Kassel, in what was then West Germany, to help out a local choir in a performance of Verdi's Requiem, conducted by James Lockhart. For many members, it was their first musical trip overseas. But there would not another such tour for ten years.
The year 1980 brought performances of Bach's B Minor Mass and Brahms's A German Requiem. In 1981, in addition to its own promotions, the GCU collaborated again with the BBC in a thrilling performance of the Grande Messe des Morts by Berlioz, as part of the BBC's Berlioz Festival.
Stage, Screen and Radio
Sir William Walton (1902–1983)
A recurring feature of the GCU's story has been its frequent collaboration with other choirs in concerts and special events. In July 1977, it had participated in Sir William Walton's Belshazzar's Feast, to mark the Greater London Council's celebration of the Royal Silver Jubilee at Alexandra Palace. In 1980, another rousing performance of the work led to an invitation from director Tony Palmer for the GCU to sing excerpts from Belshazzar's Feast for an ITV documentary on Sir William Walton called "At the Haunted End of the Day". The filming took place, appropriately enough, in the Great Hall of Goldsmiths College, with the Philharmonia Orchestra, under the direction of Simon Rattle. Unfortunately, although the sound was excellent, the pictures were not, and the choir had to be re-filmed, miming to the soundtrack, one evening at St. Michael's. However, the joins did not show in the finished documentary, which later won the coveted Prix D'ltalia for its director.
The choir's entry in the Large Choirs section of the BBC's "Let The Peoples Sing" competition in 1981 was an interesting new experience. The recordings of four contrasting a capelIa pieces were made in February, under less than ideal circumstances, but the choir had to wait until the broadcast in August before it heard that it had won the UK final.
The Golden Jubilee
The year 1982 marked the Goldsmiths Choral Union's 50th anniversary. It proved to be another busy year, with a programme that featured works both familiar (Walton's Belshazzar's Feast, Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius) and new to the choir's repertoire (Schoenberg's Friede auf Erden in a version with orchestral accompaniment, and the first London performance of Liszt's Missa Solemnis of 1855, also known as the Gran or Esztergom Mass). The choir performed the Walton in the Great Hall of Goldsmiths College, in the place where it had all begun 50 years before.
The Jubille was also marked by the publication of a commemorative brochure and an exhibition of photographs at some of the choir's events. It was also a time to take stock. The GCU was a choral organisation that had built up a considerable reputation over its first 50 years. But it was on the brink of changes, some of which were not for the better.