Choral concert

Press, 10 March 1982, Page 6

Choral concert

Concert by the Harmonic Chorale in Christchurch Cathedral. Tuesday, March 9. Reviewed by Heath Lees. It is good to see the Harmonic Chorale back in business again after a few years in abeyance. The reconstituted group has some fine voices, and some of the sections have obviously gelled straight away.'. ■ ', • ■ ■ The sopranos sounded in need of help at times, but the ocean of space in . the Cathedral plays some funny accoustic tricks and can quickly rob a choir of the sublime fullness of tone it thought it'had. Still, to begin a concert in the Cathedral with a new group singing Bruuckner is to tempt fate, and the motets

suffered occasionally from hesitancy of attack and insecure chording. Britten’s “Rejoice in the Lamb” was more successful, capturing much of the strange beauty of Smart’s words and Britten’s music, though sometimes the gratuitous percussion blurred the unique colours of the voicescoring. ■, , 1 ~ ■ - r ■ The treble soloist, Ashley White, contributed much to the effect of the lyrical sections in Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, and the choir came into its own in the long, 10-beats-in-a-bar “Adonai” section which lays the piece to rest in such a magical fashion. The concert ended with the blazing colours of John Rutter’s 1974 festive Gloria.

Again the choir sounded outmatched by the percussion and brass, but there was a thrilling finish in the chordal blocks of the final pages. Often vital to the evening were Graham Hollobon’s exacting organ accompani-. ments which were played with great technical skill and seemed to be complemented' by his uncanny ability to see from the back of the head. John Pattinson, who masterminded the occasion and directed with economic clarity, must have been pleased with the audience’s reaction to this mainly modem programme, and may be encouraged to continue this type of fare. The concert was. certainly different. It achieved much and promised more.