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Choir is out of sight
but not out of mind
Herts Advertiser
22 January 2004
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| Conductor David Hansell |
IT says a lot for the quality of the St Albans Chamber Choir's performance
on Saturday that the entire concert seemed all too short.
I was amazed when I looked at the time as I left the chapel at the All Saints
Pastoral Centre in London Colney to find that more than an hour and 20 minutes
had passed without a break. The choir's ability, coupled with the sensational
music of the 16th-century Spanish composer Tomas Luis de Victoria and the
chapel's outstanding acoustics made for an evening of very easy listening -
albeit one in which the singers had to work extremely hard.
The programme consisted of Victoria's Missa Salve Regina interspersed with four
Marian antiphons and five short organ pieces by other European contemporaries.
While the Mass is one of the finest examples of Spanish polyphony from the
period, each of the antiphons was also sung in the simpler plainchant version.
A long-time specialist of Renaissance and Baroque music, the choir's conductor,
David Hansell, once more demonstrated his mastery of the music to produce an
outstanding evening.
The organ solos were provided by Roger Judd, assistant organist at St George's
Chapel, Windsor.
His excellent performance of the short pieces by Orlando Gibbons, Andrea
Gabrieli, William Byrd and Thomas Tomkins added greatly to the evening.
If there was a downside to the concert it was that the only view half the
audience had of the choir was of the backs of their heads.
That is a problem of the chapel which was originally part of a convent and
designed so that the nuns could not be seen by the public.
But the combination of fine singing, tremendous music and the outstanding
acoustics made up for that.
JOHN MANNING
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