Classical music and jazz: Review: Anna Devin at All Hallows + Sat March 20 - Ronald Corp at St Stephen's Rosslyn Hill
Published: 18 March 2010
by SEBASTIAN TAYLOR
ANY choral society or choir deciding to tackle Bach’s B Minor Mass knows the masterpiece is regarded as possibly the most sublime piece of music ever composed, a tremendous challenge of Olympian scale.
Like Olympic contestants, choir members want to strive for outstanding excellence, to sing better than their best on the night.
So it’s sad to report that the Highgate Choral Society’s performance of the B Minor at All Hallows’s Church, Gospel Oak, on Saturday did not reach the choir’s very high standards established over the years under conductor Ronald Corp. Indeed, it is hard to believe than many members are proud of their choir’s performance.
There were occasional fleeting reminders of their high standards; some lovely mellow soprano singing; excellent tenor entries here and there; girthy bass power without butchiness.
But, for the most part, there were too many weak, fluffed or missed entries; magical fugues were ragged; delicate, deft passages were destructed by plodding singing.
Fortunately, the evening was rescued by excellent performances by the New London Orchestra and by soloists.
Irish soprano Anna Devin rose to the occasion, singing exquisitely throughout, projecting her songlines like a swallow to glide, sweep and swerve among the church aisles.
Sudanese counter-tenor Majid El-Bushra delivered a commanding performance after a tentative start, his delivery of the great Agnus Dei setting a standard the choir should have achieved.
• Ronand Corp is back in action in Hampstead on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon, conducting the North London Children’s Chorus at St Stephen’s, Rosslyn Hill, in the premiere of his own composition, an opera called The Ice Mountain, loosely based on a Swiss folk tale