COR – they can sing!

So said one member of the capacity audience at the New Elizabethan Singers’ performance on Saturday at St Mary’s Church.

The soaring trumpets that opened Bach’s ‘Magnificat’ signalled that this was to going to be a special evening.  From their first entry the choir filled the church with a unified sound.  Their attention to the beginning and ending of phrases, and to silences, suggested that much care had been taken by their director, Matt Kingston in crafting a well-articulated reading of this work.  There was some delightful woodwind playing too, particularly in the arias.

Bach’s lively and triumphant finale was followed by Mozart’s ‘Ave Verum Corpus,’  a very ‘romantic’ work.  This the choir sang with great feeling, and a heart-stopping decrescendo in the last couple of bars.

After the interval, the choir, now well in its stride, brought a wide range of tone to Mozart’s ‘Vesperae solonnes de confessore’.  Soprano Amy Carson, taking time off from the Monteverdi Choir as a last minute replacement for an indisposed singer, brought a moment of sublime artistry to the famous ‘Laudate Dominum.’ and was ably supported by her fellow soloists in other movements.

As the final notes echoed round the church, Mayor Barry Irvine thanked the choir for a most enjoyable evening and especially praised Matt Kingston, who had clearly left no stone unturned in bringing another outstanding musical event to Bridport.

The NES’s next concert will be on April 25th, which will be a performance of two works by contemporary local composers, Matthew Coleridge and Chris Reynolds.

RS