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Thoughtful Performance
Derby Bach Choir's Christmas concert,
reviewed by MIKE WHEELER
The proportion of plums to turkeys in any given Christmas concert can be variable, but Derby Bach Choir kicked off the season (Derby Cathedral, Derby, UK, 3 December 2011) with a well-balanced programme that included a thoughtful performance of Elizabeth Poston's delightful Jesus Christ the Apple Tree, and conductor James Foulds' own effective setting of the Basque carol Gabriel's Message.
In David Willcocks' rather soft-centred arrangement of the fourteenth-century Angelus ad Virginem Derby Bach Choir were joined by Ockbrook School Girls' Choir. This slightly unsettled performance gave no hint of the girls' vitality in their separate numbers under conductor Greg Maskalick, particularly their alert performances of Bob Chilcot's Look to This Day and arrangements of a couple of spirituals...
Copyright © 11 December 2011
Mike Wheeler,
Derby UK
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