Glowing praise for Allegri Singers' Zadok concert.
I have been soaking up accolades on your behalf! Words like 'brilliant' and 'splendid' and 'wonderful' keep being bandied about. It was a truly magnificent concert.
Director, Owen Davies, had chosen a varied selection of choral works for their summer concert and the enthusiasm of the choir was equally matched by their skill in meeting the demands of a range of composers.
The programme opened with Monteverdi’s lively setting of “Beatus Vir”. This was followed by Giovanni Gabrielli’s “Kyrie Eleison” and “Sanctus”. These were very interesting choral pieces both written in the early part of the 17th century. The balance which Allegri achieved provided a first class interpretation and the use of three choirs in the Gabrielli made for interesting light and shade adding particular significance to the words.
The next piece, written in the first half of the 18th century by J S Bach, was “Lobet den Herrn”. In their performance Allegri’s twenty singers brought out the powerful message with some fine sustained singing leading to a dramatic ending with “Halleuja”
The second half of the programme was devoted to a sparkling performance of Fauré’s “Requiem”. The solo by Ron Eadington (Hostia et preces tibi) was both moving and sensitive, and Cathy Sykes’ solo (Pie Jesu) was sung with appropriate emotion and a clarity of voice which took full advantage of the remarkable acoustics in the church. The version of “Requiem” selected for this performance was Fauré’s earliest and was intended for small scale performance in a church rather than the concert hall performance with full orchestra that we might be more familiar with. It was perfectly suited to Kentmere
Church and the audience responded with delight. The choir excelled itself and again the quality of their rehearsing showed itself time and again with their careful interpretation of the dynamics.
The singing of the choir was richly enhanced by the organ and strings. The church’s old chamber organ was expertly played by Peter Wodeman and was nicely balanced by a fine string quartet: Martin Yule (violin) Carol Davies (violin and viola) Oliver Wates (viola) and Martin Davies (cello). The whole evening was most memorable festival of superb music.
Please accept my heartfelt personal thanks and also those on behalf of St Cuthbert's for a really memorable experience. The sound of 'Zadok' is still echoing around the hills.