Comments on our Bach felt unnecessarily heavy

Published: 1 April, 2010

• I READ Sebastian Taylor’s review of our Bach B Minor Mass performance with dismay (An Olympian feat too far, March 18).
Like most of us, I attended all the rehearsals and, knowing how difficult the piece was, I also paid for some singing lessons with a superb teacher. As well as Ron Corp, who has successfully taken us through some difficult times with such “masterpieces” as Elgar’s Apostles performed, a year ago, at the Barbican, we had several demanding rehearsals with Samuel Evans, our baritone soloist of the concert, with whom we worked vigorously and keenly.
As an amateur choir, we do not expect to perform to a professional level and although a review might fairly offer some criticism, this review felt unnecessarily heavy.
I found it somewhat demoralising, with its implication that we should be ashamed of our performance. As an amateur choir, we work hard to sing such “Olympian” pieces.
We do it for our own enjoyment and we hope that our performance will give equal pleasure to our local supporters. Mr Taylor’s views were not reflected in the comments I heard from a number of people, most of whom told me how joyful the experience had been. Moreover, there was a unanimous feeling, both from audience and choir members that Magid El-Bushra’s voice and performance were very special, and certainly not “tentative” at any point.
VAUGHAN MELZAR
Member of Highgate
Choral Society