The battle of the Eastern Cape choirs continues this week as we return to the Feather Market Hall in Port Elizabeth to find out who has the best choral talent in the province.
It’s the next instalment of Varsity Sing on kykNET on Thursday evening as Rhodes University, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) and out-of-towners Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) square off.
This is elimination week and only two of them will move on to the semi-finals.
In last week’s episode, we were introduced to three choirs and this week, the intense competition continues as the smaller Rhodes choir competes with the big sounds of TUT and NMMU.
Our judges Marvin Kernelle, Christo Burger and Loyiso Bala seemed to understand that, and weighed in on the dynamics of Rhodes being a smaller chamber choir.
Emo Adams returns with his colourful contributions, perhaps not always delivered with sense. Maybe some viewers will understand his musings.
TUT opens the show with a performance of Vivaldi’s Gloria, dressed in celestial all-white attire. Sadly, their pianist plonks along, providing poor accompaniment. It is a clean, uncluttered vocal delivery though. Bala points out that “words are important” and that they have been placing accent in the wrong places. Burger says the pianist didn’t support them. Adams, in his way, applauded them as a choir who take risks.
Well, they certainly do.
Watch out for an eye-raising costume change they make for their performance of Hey Wena Africa, a song about the importance of work. It is a good display of their beat-boxing and a capella capabilities. They have rhythm and blend their voices and sounds well. Burger says the nuances of the choir, the bass and the alto lines, were good and that he wants them in his choir.
Next up is NMMU, under the baton of Junita Lamprecht-van Dijk. Next to Stellenbosch, this choir is probably one of the top title contenders in the competition.
They open with Dans Gebed, dressed in full African-themed garb. It is a controlled performance, with beautiful sounds, but bordering on stiff. Sort of what more militant angels would sound like.
Kernelle says they need to sound more emotionally available but that they are technically good. They closed off with a piece called, the Anti-Xenophobic Medley: an exercise in a range of moods. They move from foot-stomping lead by a vibrant praise-singer to the melodic lullabying.
The smaller choir in the game, Rhodes, opens with the Russian-language piece Bogoroditsye Devyo. Kernelle says it has balance. Their most important performance to watch is their performance of Hallelujah. Why? Because I don’t agree with the judges on their call.
I think it is a lacklustre performance, with too serious a delivery. Yet the judges laud it. They see the potential and talent of Rhodes as a chamber choir, smaller in size but one that expresses a different sound. And with this, they judge.
Watch this week, as South Africa discovers who the best choir in the Eastern Cape is, in Varsity Sing’s second outing to PE.
By Wendyl Martin, Weekend Argus
