A Boy was Born
3 December 2011 St Saviour’s Church, St Albans
Choirs united for Britten concert
To hear one really good choir is always a delight but to hear two performing together in the same concert is something really special, and that was what made Saturday’s performance of Benjamin Britten’s youthful extravaganza A Boy Was Born so exciting.
The performance at St Saviour’s Church in St Albans by the hugely experienced and well-drilled St Albans Chamber Choir together with the superb voices of the St Albans Abbey Girls’ Choir really made a very special evening. Written when Britten was just 19, and dedicated to his father, A Boy Was Born is one of the most complex works that choirs can be asked to sing: the last section in particular is not only very fast but also employs numerous techniques to build up its elaborate sound patterns. Indeed it is so complex that there are those who claim Britten over-did it, but Saturday’s performance showed just what can be achieved in this really compelling work. Most important of all for me was the tremendous clarity of sound the two choirs achieved and the fact that the sumptuous effect, reminiscent of pealing bells, came through loud and clear. Both choirs worked extremely hard to produce this performance and the Girls’ Choir really shone through in its performance of the third variation, Jesus, As Thou Art Our Saviour.
The first two works of the concert, Giovanni Perluigi da Palestrina’s Hodie Christus Natus Est and Giovanni Gabrieli’s O Magnum Mysterium showed the Chamber Choir off at its well-practised best, as did the settings of the same words by French composer Francis Poulenc which were included in the second half. The opening number of the second half was a triumph for Choir member Nicholas Hare, who is a well-known music editor and arranger. The piece was the premiere of his latest composition, Welcome Redemption’s Dawn, a very pleasing setting of words written by his wife, Susan. Unfortunately the Choir was badly depleted by coughs and colds so John Tavener’s splendid Hymn to the Mother of God was lacking some of the power one might have hoped for but nevertheless, it was a very sound performance.
The Abbey Girls’ Choir under its director Tom Winpenny took up much of the rest of the second half with quite beautiful performances of Peter Warlock’s The First Mercy and Bethlehem Down together with Herbert Howells’ O My Deir Hert and Vaughan Williams’ In Bethlehem City. The whole evening was wrapped up by the Chamber Choir under its musical director John Gibbons, with a performance of Andrew Carter’s extremely amusing version of The Twelve Days of Christmas.
JOHN MANNING
Herts Advertiser (8 December 2011)
___________________________________________________________________________________________
St Cecilia Festival Concert
Mendelssohn Elijah
22 October 2011 St Albans Cathedral
St Cecilia’s miracle continues
One of the miracles of music in St Albans is the fact that the city’s biennial St Cecilia Festival Society concert ever works, for the concert is performed by an amalgam of four separate musical organisations – the St Albans Symphony Orchestra, the St Albans Chamber Choir, the Radlett Choral Society and the Harpenden-based Hardynge Choir but as usual Saturday’s concert in St Albans Abbey, a performance of Mendelssohn‘s great oratorio, Elijah, conducted by the Hardynge Choir’s musical director Rufus Frowde, was a huge success.
The massive work, first performed just a year before the composer’s death in 1847, makes huge demands on all those taking part but in Saturday’s concert all showed themselves equal to the task. All three choirs had clearly worked extremely hard in the run up to the event and the result was some extremely pleasing music, although like so many choirs the chorus had a distinct lack of tenors. Particularly pleasing was the performance of the wonderful unaccompanied trio Lift thine eyes in the second part.
For the orchestra the oratorio is something of a tour de force with more than two hours of constant playing but they accomplished the task with great style and their performance was extremely pleasing.
Once more the St Cecilia Society chose a group of young soloists all at the beginning of their careers. And all four, soprano Katy Crompton, mezzo Angharad Lyddon, tenor John Pierce and bass Marcus Farnsworth all gave first class performances. Marcus Farnsworth, who sang the role of Elijah, proved just why he was this year’s song prize winner in the Kathleen Ferrier Competition with his fine performance throughout. Angharad Lyddon and John Pierce both have very fine voices and gave excellent performances throughout but it was Katy Crompton who was, for me, the star of the evening. Not only does she possess an outstanding voice but she added a real touch of drama to her performance which lifted it far above the norm. It would not surprise me to hear a lot more of her in the future. St Albans Cathedral Choir treble Alec Newton gave an excellent performance as the child in the first half of the oratorio.
Rufus Frowde must also be congratulated for his excellent work as conductor of such a huge event. The Hardynge Choir is truly fortunate to have such an outstanding director.
John Manning
Herts Advertiser (27 October 2011)
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Water, water everywhere
2 July 2011 St Saviour’s Church
Chamber Choir makes a splash with water-themed concert
Although St Albans Chamber Choir‘s latest concert went under the name of Water, Water Everywhere, it could also have been called Cacophony to Polyphony, so diverse was the range of music.
The cacophony (almost) came in the rather strange and extremely challenging setting of Spenser’s The Waves Come Rolling from The Faerie Queen by Richard Rodney Bennett. This is a work which on first hearing appears to have no real musical form – in fact as conductor John Gibbons suggested, if anyone turned their radio on in the middle of it, they would probably turn off at once. Nevertheless, it is an important element of Bennett’s cycle Sea Change, and it also proved the versatility of the members of the Choir in succeeding satisfactorily to perform such a difficult work.
The final part of the cycle is a setting of Shakespeare’s Full Fathom Five, one of three settings performed on the night, the others being by Vaughan Williams and the Finish composer Jaakko Mäntyjärvi. Of these, the Vaughan Williams setting is the best known and, from the Choir’s point of view, the most challenging, but the other two, particularly the Mäntyjärvi, are both well worth listening to.
The choral highlight of the evening was the performance of Cloudburst by the American composer Eric Whitacre. In this extremely atmospheric work the choir was accompanied by the handbell group the Columban Ringers from St Columba’s College inSt Albans. Again the choir proved its versatility as it merged clapping, finger clicking and even loud breathing into the wonderful sound patterns Whitacre creates, but while the performance was well executed, I felt the Choir was not really big enough to achieve the full effect of these extraordinary sound effects.
The watery theme of the concert also included John Whitworth’s setting of The Mermaid, originally commissioned for the King’s Singers, an extremely amusing piece, and Bob Chilcott‘s Weather Report. Rounding off the concert were a series of very jolly song settings, starting with Vaughan Williams’ Ward the Pirate and Jonathan Willcocks’ arrangement of What shall we do with the drunken sailor, the fine arrangement of Ol’ Man River by one of the Choir’s own members Nicholas Hare, and ending with Andrew Carter‘s I do like to be beside the seaside.
Another highlight of this rather strange but totally amusing concert was three fine piano solos played by former Royal Northern College of Music student Seb Grand. These were Liszt’s Légende No 2, Debussy‘s Prelude Ondine and John Ireland‘s The Island Spell. Seb, who is due to begin a Master’s course at theRoyalAcademy in September, proved himself to be a fine performer.
John Manning
Herts Advertiser (7 July 2011)
____________________________________________________
The sea, the sea
30 April 2011 St Albans Cathedral
Choirs’ joint concert is perfect pairing
IN more than 40 years of partnership between the St Albans Chamber Choir and the Wormser Kantorei there can have been few joint concerts quite as impressive as their performance in St Albans Abbey on Saturday.
For the first time the two choirs teamed up with the St Albans Symphony Orchestra and the central work of the evening was Ralph Vaughan Williams’ epic A Sea Symphony. For any choir and orchestra to reach the standard of performance which was achieved on Saturday would have been tribute enough to the musicians but the fact that the two parts of the choir were rehearsing hundreds of miles apart in St
Albans and its German twin town, Worms, is an even greater tribute to their two conductors, John Gibbons of the Chamber Choir and Stefan Merkelbach of the Kantorei.
Coupled with an excellent performance by the St Albans Symphony Orchestra and outstanding soloists soprano Anna Gorbachyova and baritone Toby Stafford-Allen the evening was one to remember. Vaughan Williams’ work, a cross between a symphony and a cantata, has at its heart poems of the American Walter Whitman and throughout, the often deep and brooding music depicts the ever-restless sea and the wind. John Gibbons, who conducted the epic work, constantly ensured that the orchestra never overpowered the singers and achieved a finely balanced overall performance. It is around 30 years since the symphony was performed in St Albans but if anyone wants to hear it again, I understand the members of the Wormser Kantorei were so impressed with it that they have already decided it will be the central work of the joint concert the two choirs will be staging in Worms in 2013.
The first half of the concert opened with Alan Rawsthorne’s prelude and nocturne written for the 1950′s film The Cruel Sea, an all too brief insight into the works of a composer who is yet to achieve the prominence he deserves. Equally Johannes Brahms‘ quite beautiful Schicksalslied, the piece in the concert chosen by the Wormser Kantorei and conducted by Stefan Merkelbach, is another piece of music worthy of much wider recognition. Rarely heard in this country the work, typically Brahmsian in its style, was, once more, quite exquisitely performed by the orchestra and joint choirs.
John Manning
Herts Advertiser (5 May 2011)
______________________________________________________________
Intimations of mortality
12 March 2011 All Saints Pastoral Centre
Music Director gets moody for Chamber Choir
IN his introductory comments at the beginning of St Albans Chamber Choir’s concert in All Saints Pastoral Centre, London Colney, Music Director John Gibbons focused on the title and mood of the programme, which could be seen as arising from the association of all of the choral pieces with violent deaths, either recent or to come, dependent on when they were written. Sombre the antecedents may have been but the music that emerged provided the audience with a programme which was sustaining in every respect.
The first piece, William Byrd‘s Infelix Ego, a setting of a meditation on Psalm 51 (the Miserere) by the already tortured and soon to be burnt priest Savonarola, was recognised in Geoffrey Ward’s programme notes as, “the crowning glory of Byrd’s achievement as a composer of spiritual works”. The choir’s faithful and sensitive performance set a high standard which was to be maintained throughout the concert.
The text used by Orlando Gibbons in the madrigal What Is our Life? might have been written by Sir Walter Raleigh and went to the heart of the evening’s theme. Christopher Tye‘s Peccavimus cum Patribus was, for me, the probable highlight of the evening, although very demanding in its requirement for the higher voices to exercise their upper ranges, in dramatic contrast to the two sections for the lower voices.
Drama was very evident too in Robert Ramsey‘s How are the Mighty Fallen, not least in its musical interpretation of the title statement. The final choral piece was Robert Carver‘s remarkable O bone Jesu in which nine of the nineteen vocal parts are scored for tenors – a challenge for the choir reminiscent of Tallis’s 40-part motet Spem in Alium. The concentration required was evident in the faces of some choir members but they succeeded in providing a memorable final item in the programme.
One of the notable features of John Gibbons’ programming is the inclusion of well-chosen instrumentalists to provide variety and contrast. On this occasion, the choir was joined by the Romaldi Trio, comprising Rob Garcia (mandolin/mandola/guitar), Ian Segui (mandolin/mandola) and Steve Smith (guitar), who proved ideally suited to the acoustics of the chapel at All Saints. Those sitting close to them were particularly transfixed by their skill and musicianship in the items they played between the choral pieces.
A further element of melancholy was added to the evening by the thought that the Chapel’s fine acoustics may be lost to the Chamber Choir and other musical groups by the impending sale of All Saints by the Archdiocese of Westminster. Members of the audience were asked to pause on their way out to sign a petition asking for that decision to be reversed.
Nicholas Crickmay
Herts Advertiser (24 March 2011)
________________________________________________________
Post-Christmas Blues
15 January 2011 St Saviour’s Church
Choir jazz things up for church
TOP quality jazz events are a rarity in St Albans, but if the size of the audience at St Saviour’s Church on Saturday is anything to go by, there is clearly an audience for them. This concert was a rare combination of a choir and fine jazz musicians – in this case the St Albans Chamber Choir, the Will Todd Trio and local saxophonist David Wigram together with jazz singer Bethany Halliday. The central reason was a performance of Will Todd’s sensational Mass in Blue, a work commissioned by the Hertfordshire Chorus and which received its premier in St Albans Abbey in 2003.
Todd’s love for both jazz and choral music is clear throughout the work which skilfully blends the two genres to stunning effect. Under musical director John Gibbons, the choir worked superbly with the musicians and Bethany Halliday to produce a remarkable musical event. More accustomed to singing traditional, often early music, the Choir members demonstrated tremendous versatility as well as great performing skill as they handled the subtleties of the work, which, in spite of its style, never detracted from the meaning of the Latin text.
The trio and David Wigram had earlier joined the choir in performances of John Rutter’s Birthday Madrigals and Karl Jenkins’s witty nonsense piece A Parliament of Owls. Rutter’s work, which alternately uses jazz and more traditional choral styles, also clearly demonstrated the Choir’s versatility as they handled the changes from the swinging version of It was a Lover and his Lass to the gentle sounds of Draw on, Sweet Night.
Between the madrigals and A Parliament of Owls the trio did their own thing with exciting toe-tapping arrangements of Somewhere Over the Rainbow and Let There Be Joy in My Heart.
As one of the city’s most respected musicians commented at the end of the performance, “This could well be the highlight of the year”, and if the size and reaction of the audience are anything to go by, other groups have been set an extremely high standard for the future.
John Manning
Herts Advertiser (21 January 2011)
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Remembrance
20 November 2010 St Peter’s Church
Late but great for choir’s concert
WHO would turn out on a cold, dank November evening to sit in a church listening to music written by deceased composers in honour of the dead? Well, last Saturday, the nave of St Peter’s Church was packed with people doing just that. In fact, they had come to hear St Albans Chamber Choir give their account of masterpieces by J.S. Bach, John Ireland and Herbert Howells. Supported by music director John Gibbons, and local organist Alex Flood, it proved to be an evening of old favourites for the ecclesiastical cognoscenti, and a splendid introduction to some of the finest British sacred music of the twentieth century for the rest of the audience.
The concert opened with Bach’s motet Jesu, meine Freude (Jesus, my joy). This is a substantial work, made more demanding by being unaccompanied. The choir displayed fine ensemble singing, displaying great clarity and verve, especially in the stunning opening, and in the glorious finale where the final chord, suddenly switched into the major key, uplifts and inspires.
Ireland and Howells, who wrote many secular works including chamber and piano works, are best known for their anthems and are well loved by church choirs. Ireland’s anthem Greater Love Hath No Man is sung around Easter and Remembrance Sunday and its quiet intensity with contrasting middle section makes it a great piece to sing. The Howells’ Requiem is equally passionate, with long flowing lines and thick harmonies that create a richness of sound and suits the choir well. The various solo parts were taken on by members of the choir to great effect, most notably Tom Anthony in the finale, I heard a voice from Heaven, where he maintained a clear and serene bass line through the other parts.
Alex Flood allowed the choir some respite during his performances of Kleine harmonische Labyrinthe, a dramatic piece attributed to J.S.Bach, and in Howells’ Saraband in moda elegiaca. Both pieces allowed Alex to demonstrate the full range of St Peter’s great new organ and he gave fine performances of each.
The concert concluded with Howells’ anthem, Take him Earth, for Cherishing. This was written for the memorial service of John F. Kennedy and is considered by many to be Howells’ finest work. This most impassioned piece provided a fine ending to a concert of music for remembering.
Ros McGuirk
Herts Advertiser (25 November 2010)
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Magna Carta celebration
12 June 2010 St Albans Cathedral
Magna Carta concert made of the rights stuff
THERE can be little doubt that Saturday’s Magna Carta Celebration Concert at St Albans Abbey was one of the most important St Albans Symphony Orchestra had ever given. Not only was it playing in front of most of Hertfordshire’s civic leaders, but it was also giving the last major concert under current conductor Dr James Ross. The result was a triumph for the orchestra, which has made tremendous progress in the nine years Dr Ross has been in charge.
The orchestra was joined for the event by the Royal Academy of Music Brass Ensemble, St Albans Chamber Choir and Watford Philharmonic Society as well as mezzo soprano Jeanette Ager and soprano Sara Jonsson.
Specially designed to fit with the city’s Magna Carta Celebrations, the first half, conducted by Chamber Choir musical director John Gibbons, opened with a tremendous performance of Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man. This striking work filled the Abbey with sound of an outstanding quality which immediately set a mark for the rest of the evening.
To say that the second work, American composer Howard Hanson’s Song of Human Rights, is rarely heard is something of an understatement. It was originally written in 1963 to celebrate the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and John Gibbons believes it may not have been performed since then. However Saturday’s performance by the Orchestra and the Chamber Choir fitted exactly into the theme of the evening and the work proved to be pleasant and tuneful and well worth the extraordinary efforts Mr Gibbons had made to acquire a copy of the score.
But the major work of the evening was the performance of Gustav Mahler’s Second Symphony, a piece considered by many to be the composer’s most important and most compelling. Any doubts I had over the orchestra’s ability to perform this huge and dramatic work were dispelled from the opening dark, almost doom-laden bars. Although not perfect, for no live performance ever is, this was an outstanding event in the life of the Orchestra and a fitting tribute to the hard work Dr Ross and the members have put in over the past nine years. Yes, there were some minor flaws in the orchestra’s performance, but in the overall effect they were insignificant. The interpretation by Dr Ross was fine and well balanced and throughout the epic work the musicians totally gripped the attention of the audience. Jeanette Ager’s rich and commanding voice added hugely to the effect of the moving fourth movement and together with Sara Jonsson and the combined Watford and St Albans choirs, the powerful fifth movement brought the soloists and the orchestra’s extraordinary performance to a triumphant end.
The one disappointment of the evening was the small size of the audience, presumably reduced by the fact that England was playing its first game in the World Cup. But those regulars who opted not to attend missed one of the finest evenings of music ever staged by the St Albans Symphony Orchestra and one which surely demonstrated the tremendous skills of amateur music makers in the district.
JOHN MANNING
Herts Advertiser (17 June 2010)
SEEN AND HEARD UK CONCERT REVIEW
For review of our February 2010 concert, please click here “Gloria review”
___________________________________________________________________________________________
A Parliament of Owls
4 July 2009 St Peter’s Church
Exciting times for St Albans Chamber Choir
CONDUCTOR John Gibbons deserves a huge vote of thanks for arranging one of the most exciting concerts to be staged in St Albans for some time. The final concert in the St Albans Chamber Choir’s 50th anniversary season was packed with musical treats not just from the choir, but also from the guest artists who were taking part at St Peter’s Church in St Albans on Saturday.
Topping the bill was internationally-renowned composer Karl Jenkins and his wife Carol Barratt who accompanied the choir in a performance of Jenkins’ own work A Parliament of Owls, but also adding to the riches of the evening were world-class marimba player Daniella Ganeva and St Albans saxophone player David Wigram.
Daniella joined the choir in their first work of the evening, Oratio, by the little-known Latvian composer Rihards Dubra. This is probably one of the most demanding and challenging pieces ever sung by the Chamber Choir but the result was outstanding, particularly in the way the voices blended with the marimba.
Hard on its heels came the first of two solo spots by David Wigram in which he played three of the four movements from Argentinian composer Astor Piazzolla‘s fast moving Histoire du Tango, accompanied by John Gibbons at the piano. David’s performance of these delightful jazzy and rhythmic pieces just added to the excitement of the evening.
Edward Elgar‘s delightful song There Is Sweet Music acted as a wonderful foil to the fast-moving Argentinean rhythm and once more demonstrated the choir’s ability to handle difficult works.
Sweet Suffolk Owl by the 17th century composer Thomas Vautor acted as a fine introduction to Karl Jenkins A Parliament of Owls. Described as a “celebration of collective nouns”, the work is at once witty and entertaining but also demanding not only for the choir but also for the accompanists – the piano duettists, saxophone and percussion. The huge applause of the audience at the end of the of the work should have been enough to prove to all those taking part that the performance was hugely entertaining.
In complete contrast, the second half began with Les Chansons des Roses, five outstandingly beautiful songs by the contemporary American composer Morten Lauridsen. Daniella Ganeva’s solo spot, a performance of Visio Remissionis, a piece specially written for her by Rihards Dubra, proved to be yet another high point of the evening. Daniella showed tremendous mastery of her instrument, demonstrating a vast range of tonal effects in her completely riveting performance. The madrigals, All Creatures Now Are Merry-Minded by John Bennet and Orlando Gibbons‘ The Silver Swan calmed down the proceedings before David Wigram’s performance of the third of Piazzolla’s pieces and the final work of the evening, Bob Chilcott‘s amusing Weather Report.
This was without doubt a great evening of outstanding – and often rare – music sung by a fine choir and performed by outstanding musicians. John Gibbons and all those associated with the evening deserve heartfelt thanks from all those fortunate enough to be present at the concert.
Herts Advertiser (9 July 2009)
John Manning
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Martyrs and heroes
24 January 2009 St Albans Cathedral
Making of a martyr
ALTHOUGH premières of new musical compositions are reasonably common events in St Albans, few can have been more eagerly awaited than Saturday’s performance of Tarik O’Regan‘s Martyr. The work was commissioned to mark the 50th anniversary of St Albans Chamber Choir and along with an outstanding line-up of soloists, the choir was joined for the performance in St Albans Abbey by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Recognised on both sides of the Atlantic as one of Britain’s leading young composers, O’Regan used an extract from an anonymous eighth century manuscript, an ecclesiastical sonnet by Wordsworth and a translation of an eleventh century poem as the texts for his work on the martyrdom of St Alban. The result was an expressive, atmospheric work which was both thrilling and uplifting. It made full use of the choir’s finer qualities as well as providing excellent orchestral moments and some outstanding sections for the soloists, soprano Ida Falk Winland, alto Jeanette Ager, tenor Matthew Minter and bass James Oldfield. At the centre of the work was a fine unaccompanied section for the choir, which can be used as a stand-alone concert piece should it become popular with other choirs.
The choir had opened the concert with a brief and rather troubling unaccompanied work, Immortal Bach by Knut Nystedt. Based on Bach’s Komm, süsser Tod, the individual lines are ‘stretched’ by different singers to produce a disconcerting sound pattern before all the voices once more come together. It was followed by Tchaikovsky’s stunning Legend, one of his Carols for Choir, which was sung in Russian, and a performance by the orchestra of Arensky‘s all too-rarely-heard Variations on a Theme of Tchaikovsky.
The second half was chiefly given over to Joseph Haydn’s glorious Nelson Mass where there can be little doubt that the star performer was Soprano Ida Falk Witland. Although all four soloists together with the orchestra, choir and organist Alex Woodrow gave fine performances, Ida was outstanding. The whole evening, conducted by John Gibbons, was a truly memorable event and completely worthy of a 50th anniversary celebration.
John Manning
Herts Advertiser 29 January 2009
_______________________________________________________
Summer Blues
5 July 2008
‘THERE was something particularly refreshing about the choice of music for St Albans Chamber Choir‘s concert on Saturday. Musical director John Gibbons skilfully entwined songs by Percy Grainger, Jonathan Dove and John Rutter around George Shearing‘s delightful Songs and Sonnets from Shakespeare. And just to add an extra piquancy to the event, the Rutter work was his Birthday Madrigals which include settings of two of the Shakespeare pieces in Shearing’s work.’
‘The evening started with Percy Grainger’s slightly macabre piece The Three Ravens with choir member John Webb singing an excellent tenor solo.’ ’Of the seven Shearing pieces, several have a strong jazz influence backed by excellent piano and double bass accompaniment provided by John Byron and Andrew Wood. Probably the best known of these are Hey, Ho, The Wind and the Rain and It Was a Lover and his Lass but several of the other pieces such as Who is Silvia? are more contemplative and serene. All were performed exquisitely by the choir.
The other two Percy Grainger pieces in the programme were his setting of the folk song Brigg Fair with tenor Ralph Penny as soloist and Early One Morning with tenor Geoff Ward and soprano Rosamund Adlard providing the solo parts. Both are charming works which were given first-class performances.’
‘In the hands of Jonathan Dove, the old nursery rhyme Who Killed Cock Robin takes on a completely new form and the Chamber Choir extracted every nuance from the rich sound patterns his music provides. The work is animated and powerful and is relatively brief but at the same time it is, for me, thoroughly entertaining and Saturday’s performance was extremely good fun.’
‘Now the choir is set to begin its 50th anniversary season which will include a concert with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in St Albans Abbey early next year.’
Herts Advertiser
Extracts from review by John Manning
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Stabat Mater
15 March 2008 St Saviour’s Church
Choir in the right direction
‘For only his third concert since he was appointed conductor of St Albans Chamber Choir, John Gibbons showed his ability to understand his singers with a programme of Easter music. His choice for the concert at St Saviour’s Church, St Albans, on Saturday was of pieces from the 16th to the 18th century which were all ideally suited to the choir.’
‘The first was the very brief but delightful O Vos Omnes by Italian Carlo Gesualdo. For the piece, John Gibbons took the choir to the eastern end of the church, relatively far away from the audience, a move which added to the effect of the piece.’
‘Orlandus Lassus’ rich setting of Aurora Lucis Rutilat, a work attributed to the fourth-century Saint Ambrose, was another fine performance by the choir which was split into main choir and sub choir of sopranos for the unaccompanied work.’
‘But the group had left their finest performance to the last. They sang Handel’s Dixit Dominus with huge enthusiasm and obvious delight. The result was that the incredibly-showy work was packed with life and character.’
‘St Albans Chamber Choir appears to have taken on a new lease of life….’
Herts Advertiser
Extracts from review by John Manning
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Entente Cordiale
19 January 2008
‘ALTHOUGH it is only three months since John Gibbons took over as conductor of the St Albans Chamber Choir he is already making a huge impression……’
‘All Saints Chapel has a rare acoustic quality with an extremely long reverberation time which, although unforgiving, allowed the choir to develop a tremendous sound quality which added greatly to the impact of the Vaughan Williams’ Mass in G minor. ’There was a strong sonorous quality throughout the work and particularly fine solo performances by individual members.’
‘John Gibbons and the choir developed the full glory of the work to give an exciting and fresh performance. But the interspersed songs, all in French, were equally well performed and their variety was both entertaining and refreshing. Particularly outstanding was the extremely difficult Claude Debussy song Yver, vous n’estes qu’un vilain.’
‘The way the choir handled this and the rest of the concert brings hope that the Chamber Choir, which has always had a high reputation, is now set to move on to a more impressive future.’
Herts Advertiser
Extracts from review by John Manning
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Love & Remembrance
10 November 2007
‘…the choir gave a tremendous performance of Herbert Howells’ moving work Take Him, Earth for Cherishing. The piece, written for the memorial service of John F Kennedy in Washington Cathedral, is rightly considered one of the great choral works of the 20th century and the choir’s performance more than did it justice. Similarly there were good performances of Robert Ramsey’s marvellous anthem How Are The Mighty Fallen and Schütz’s Selig Sind Die Toten.’
‘The main work of the evening was the rarely-heard Requiem by the little-known English composer George Lloyd. Complete shortly before his death in 1998, it is a substantial and tuneful work with some great high points, all of which were well sung by the choir.’
‘I have a strong feeling that the new partnership is set to be a great success’
Herts Advertiser
Extracts from review by John Manning