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Vividly Projected
The Sitwell Singers' fiftieth anniversary concert,
heard by MIKE WHEELER
The Derby-based Sitwell Singers marked their fiftieth anniversary in style by not only commissioning a new piece from Bob Chilcott, but getting him to conduct it, as well as others of his own pieces, beginning with his four Salisbury Motets (Derby Cathedral, Derby, UK, 15 October 2016)
Extracted from his large-scale Salisbury Vespers to make a stand-alone work, they set non-liturgical texts referring, or addressed, to the Virgin Mary. Their mood-progression was nicely captured, from the gentle 'I Sing of a Mayden', through 'When to the Temple Mary Went', catching the pleasing rhythmic lilt of the occasional bars of 7/8 time, and the poignant 'Lovely Tear of Lovely Eye', to the jubilant choral fanfare 'Hail, Star of the Sea Most Radiant'. The choir sang these, and everything else, in so-called scrambled position, with a resulting gain in immediacy.
Regular conductor Malcolm Goldring took over for Brahms' Ach, Arme Welt, du Trügest Mich, Op 110 No 2, sung with a fine sense of the music's flow...
Copyright © 1 November 2016
Mike Wheeler,
Derby UK
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