Reviewer – Lionel Steuart Fothringham

This wonderfully varied programme conducted by Robin Walker was presented to a capacity audience in the sympathetic acoustic of St John’s Church.

The Liebeslieder waltzes of Brahms which opened the concert were sung with well-shaped phrases and excellent pronunciation. Overall, the women’s voices came across much better than the men’s in their respective solo passages, and the sound remained well-controlled in the louder items. The piano duet accompaniment played by Clifford Benson and Junko Nakamura was played with great sensitivity.

Schumann’s Fantasiestücke for cello and piano were performed by Elizabeth Moore and Clifford Benson in a very expressive way with an excellent sense of rubato. It was a pity, however, that the cello was poorly positioned and did not project well, forcing the pianist to hold back a little too much in the final piece.

Elgar’s There is sweet music is a challenging work for unaccompanied 8-part choir incorporating a complicated key scheme. Unfortunately the performance suffered from tuning problems as a result, but the choir captured the enigmatic quality of the text very well.

The jump to the early seventeenth century for a selection of madrigals worked very well. All were sung with an excellent sense of style and contrast, but there were some problems of balance and pacing in one or two items. Most impressive were the two quiet numbers (Weep you no more, sad fountains by Dowland and The Silver Swan by Gibbons) which were very well controlled.

Prelude, Fugue & Riffs for cello and piano by local composer Laurie Dunkin Wedd was excitingly performed, despite some tuning problems in the difficult first movement. The virtuoso last movement seemed curiously out of character with the rest of the work – it would doubtless sound better played by a rock band!

The concert concluded with four well-known jazz items from 1930s New York. Sadly, In The Mood and I Got Rhythm lacked a certain amount of the sparkle and energy that the music is crying out for, but the gentler Night And Day and Deep Purple were performed with great skill and excellent interplay between the voices.

Reviewer – Victor Clements

The concert on Saturday last was stunning! I was so moved by the quality of voices and the musicality of the whole programme: I thought it was absolutely brilliant and so did my companion. We were both so glad we came – so very, very, sorry not so many others did – look what they missed.

The Howells is so beautiful especially as sung by the Cantate – I could go on but I won’t – you will gather I loved it and keep re-living the joy of it.

Reviewer – Robert Hardcastle

Review of the concert by The Cantate Choir at Chapel of St Augustine, Tonbridge School. – 26th January 2003

Three setttings of the Magnificat in one afternoon may sound like two too many, but thanks to some very ingenious programme planning and superbly authentic performances by the Cantate Choir, the London Pro Arte Baroque Orchestra and a well-chosen group of soloists, a packed audience in the Tonbridge School Chapel last Sunday enjoyed a rare feast of joyous and celebratory music-making.

Mounted by Dr Stephen Coles as part of this year’s Tudeley Festival, this unique concert was given in aid of the Tonbridge Cottage Hospital, who are raising money for much-needed ceiling hoists to make patient care easier for the staff and patients alike. The programme consisted of two Magnificats in D major, the first by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, and the second composed by his father, Johann Sebastian, some twenty years earlier.

Sandwiched between these two works – and this is what gave the programme such an intriguing shape – was a third Magnificat, composed in the latter part of the 17th century either by Jean Baptiste Lully or Couperin Le Grand, for two sopranos, organ and cello. The young sopranos were Amy Feston and Katherine Manley whose voices, although contrasting in character, blended together extremely well. As in the two Bach works, they brought to their performances a high degree of musicianship and insight. I do not know how much, if at all, they have sung together in the past, but I think we may have in the making here a future duo to compare with Felicity Lott and Ann Murray, which is high praise indeed.

Equally impressive were their colleagues William Purefoy, James Oxley and Jonathan May, in the two works by members of the Bach family. Purefoy, a wonderfully mellow counter-tenor – if that’s not a contradiction in terms – and the tenor James Oxley were heard to great advantage in the CPE Bach Magnificat, especially in ‘Deposuit potentes’ duet, while the bass-baritone Jonathan May, accompanied by chamber organ and cello, dealt powerfully with the unsympathetic acoustic of the Tonbridge School Chapel in, for example, ‘Quia fecit mihi omnia’, the one bass aria in JS Bach’s work.

The Cantate Choir, until recently known as the Chantry Choir based in Sevenoaks and directed by Robin Walker, director of music at St.Giles-in-the-Fields parish church in London, provided admirable support throughout, as did the London Pro Arte Baroque Orchestra led by Theresa Caudle and conducted by Murray Stewart. Special mention should also be made of the two oboes, who wove the usual Bach spell around many of the soprano arias, together with the splendid baroque trumpets, and the harpsichord and chamber organ parts performed by Kathryn Cok and James Longford. In the hands of all these dedicated musicians – soloists, chorus and instrumentalists – the causes of music and of medicine were, in equal measure, very well served.

Reviewer – Roger Evernden

Review of the concert by The Cantate Choir at St Martin’s Church, Brasted – 30th November 2002

St.Martin’s Church, Brasted was full on Saturday evening when a very enthusiastic audience supported the Sevenoaks-based Cantate Choir under its new conductor, Robin Walker. The choir members are all experienced, local singers, but the conductor, organist and soprano soloist are young professional musicians; a blend which certainly produced splendid results in this programme of liturgical music by Charpentier, Bruckner and Poulenc.

The church is notable for its striking new roof and beautiful organ – both works of great craftsmanship. The organ was heard in accompaniment and solo roles. Steven Grahl captured truly authentic French Baroque sounds in the attractive noels which act as interludes in Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit. As accompanist in Poulenc’s Gloria he displayed extraordinary virtuosity, producing genuine French cathedral sonorities. He was always sensitive to Robin Walker’s authoritative conducting and soprano soloist, Benedikte Moes’s fluid and expressive lines.

Interestingly, Charpentier’s Mass, because of its lack of contrast in the vocal textures and tonalities characteristic of this seventeenth century style, restricted the choir to a rather monochrome style. The liturgical scenario was confirmed by Robin Walker’s cathedral-choir style of conducting. This elicited a smooth, warm-toned but unremarkable, and occasionally imprecise choral sound. However, delightful interludes were interpolated by solo voices and small ensembles from within the choir.

Holding the choir back in this way meant that the bolder contrasts in tone and dynamics needed for Bruckner’s motets were particularly telling when they arrived. Here the passion and intensity of Bruckner’s Romanticism, coupled with his genuine religious austerity, made a fascinatingly shifting musical scene.

Poulenc’s Gloria is an extraordinary amalgam of sacred and secular theatricality. This enabled Robin Walker, now with a more secular conducting style, to draw long, sinuous lines from his choir, but also contrast them with incisive attacks and striking dynamic contrasts. Ensemble was tight, yet flexible. In the movements with soprano solo, Benedikte Moes sang antiphonally with the choir, at other times her voice floating above them. She demonstrated an effortlessly impressive range of pitch and tonal control. She could be both operatic and hauntingly introspective.

This was an evening where the musicians communicated directly with their appreciative audience. Clearly both the choir and its conductor will go from strength to strength as they work together in the future.

Phoenix flies high

Reviewer – FL Dunkin Wedd

Review of the concert by The Cantate Choir with the Corelli Consort at St Martin’s Church, Brasted – 25th May 2002

As so often, the tone of this concert was set from the very first note: Cantate’s opening to Bach’s Jesu meine Freude was confident, full-bodied and spiritual, setting the standard for the whole evening.

Those who seek to walk in the steps of the Chantry Choir aim high. Chantry established a peerless reputation with performances of near professional standard; after their demise The Cantate Choir – with many of the same members – has risen, phoenix-like, from the ashes, their former esteem evidenced by a long queue of conductors hoping to be associated with them. On this showing Cantate have nothing to fear from comparison with their forebears.

In fact fear – or the lack of it – was a bit of a theme in this concert. When a new choir chooses to start their very first programme with an icon of the choral repertoire like Jesu meine Freude it’s a confident start – and a courageous one. For all its familiarity, Jesu meine Freude is difficult to sing; it depends for variety on subtle changes in vocal colour, and can easily become wearisome in amateur hands – a challenge for choir and conductor alike.

But Cantate did not disappoint. From the first ebullient note, they displayed superb ensemble singing. They entered into the spirit of Bach’s masterpiece with gusto, allowing conductor Adrian Pitts to add subtle character to the work; the elision of the lines in the chorales was beautifully brought off, showing a good understanding between choir and conductor. Adrian Pitts was long associated with the Chantry Choir – and it shows.

There were some fine details hers – especially from altos and tenors; the altos were perhaps the stars of the evening, offering a wonderful bloom of tone, secure intonation and lots of eye contact with the conductor. There were some details for Cantate to work on in future; Bach’s trio mercilessly exposes any weakness, and confidence and intonation are at risk in the most professional performance; the Cantate sopranos could achieve a more caressing tone and more hushed pianissimo. But these caveats apart both choir and conductor did full justice to a demanding piece, producing a most moving performance.

Before the next choral work, Cantate’s clever programming had four notable local musicians play Corelli’s Trio Sonata in C op. 34 No. 1; like a sorbet between courses of a gourmet meal, this cleansed the aural palate. Vreni Gould and Robin Morrish (violins), Tony Gould (organ) and Elizabeth Moore (cello) are all fine players – and know each other well. It seemed that they joined effortlessly together in marvellous rapport, listening so intently to each other, attuned to the slightest nuances of each others’ playing.

Vreni Gould led with a wonderful lustrous silvery tone, firm but unassuming; husband Tony’s continuo was sensitive and supportive. So often when one hears a second violin one wants to take them out a buy them a square meal; this could never be the case with Robin Morrish, who knows exactly when to take centre stage, exactly how to support without dominating – rare qualities. Elizabeth Moore’s luminous cello playing was characterised as ever by grace and elegance – always sensitive, never forgetting the spiritual dimension. All four have the technical mastery that allows them to relax and enjoy the music – and their enjoyment was infectious. The cheerful and melodic Corelli was a good choice – music for pleasure, played with love.

As we’ve seen, Cantate don’t duck a challenge. Poulenc’s Four Penitence Motets are complex both emotionally and harmonically, and as difficult to sing as the Bach – though for very different reasons.

The programme notes suggested that these four motets represent a normally frivolous composer in deeply religious mood – but Poulenc is more complex that that. Spirit and spirituality are interwoven so closely that they cannot be separated; in these miraculous motets powerful expression is given to the religious uncertainty that typifies the twentieth century. Written in 1938-9, they embody the looming wars – one remembered, one foreshadowed – that gave rise to this questioning of faith.

Again the Cantate Choir gave us a wonderful opening, presaging good things to come. Balance and dynamics were now perfected, and Adrian Pitts finely managed subtle changes of character. The choir coped admirably with the harmonic language, especially in the fourth movement where Poulenc’s Gallic wit comes to the fore. These are complex and expressive works, and it’s hard to imagine a performance where their contradictory qualities could be better balanced, or one more moving. In the third movement one could have wished for the sopranos to concentrate more on tone quality than volume: the top line will always be heard without the need for strong projection. One would have liked a more firm and focused sound in the bass. But these quibbles only serve to show how close to perfect these performances were.

The Corelli Consort returned for Bach’s Sinfonia from the Easter Oratorio, in a marvellous arrangement by Norman Carrell. Although again a refreshment to the palate, this was much more than an amuse-bouche – more like Bach’s double violin concerto in miniature, with Vreni Gould and Robin Morrish swapping phrase for heartfelt phrase. Never were Bach’s runs and trills thrown off with mere technical bravura: every one was beautifully played – and here again, Elizabeth Moore’s grave and thoughtful cello playing was crucial in setting the mood. This performance alone was worth the admission price.

Last came Handel’s Zadok the Priest, cleverly placed at the end of the programme, not the beginning – and again Cantate showed great courage. The piece is so well known that it begs comparison with the ‘perfect’ studio recordings we have all heard. It can easily turn into a bit of a shout – but in these hands never did so: the vocal tone was warm, the sound was bright and focused, diction was clear, and intonation was accurate. The dynamic range was perhaps better handled here than anywhere else in the programme.

And here also Tony Gould’s organ playing came into its own with wonderfully chosen registration, building up splendidly to the climactic choir entry. The choir obviously know the piece well and could probably sing it by heart – in fact I would have liked to hear them do so; singing without books sharpens listening skills and encourages eye-contact with the conductor.

This was a concert of fearless programming, cleverly varied, with a capacity (and rapturous) audience; very high standards of singing and conducting – an example of future Cantate concerts.