Reviews

Baroque to Bruckner: Ceremonial Music for Choir and Brass. St John's Catholic Cathedral, Norwich

Eastern Daily Press 5th July 2011
The resonance of the Catholic cathedral added a dimension to voices and brass in this programme of ceremonial music from the 17th and 19th centuries.

With a pair of trumpets and three trombones to add splendour, the 30-strong Colchester Chamber Choir, under Roderick Earle, showed their style as well as their vigour in a joyful anthem, in German, by Heinrich Schutz.

Henry Purcell’s coronation anthem for James II was also exuberant and thrilling. To the ominous beat of a muffled drum, the mood changed for the restrained, sombre magnificence of a sensitive interpretation of the funeral music for Queen Mary.

The artistic originality and religious faith in works by the Austrian composer Anton Bruckner made an equally strong impression, the performers showing flexibility in response to a wide range of demands. Emotions ran deep in a text from the Requiem Mass that was framed with soul-stirring trombone trios, while justified triumph was the theme of the exultant Behold a Great Priest.

Based on the alternation of a solo tenor in the role of a cantor and the choir’s full-throated ready responses, the setting of the Marian antiphon Thou Art All Fair expressed the fervour of Catholic devotion.

Christopher Smith

Baroque to Bruckner: Ceremonial Music for Choir and Brass. St Teresa's Church, Colchester

Essex County Standard 24th June 2011
Colchester Chamber Choir showed its greatness with perfectly balanced sound, total musical commitment and faithful interpretation of a variety of styles.

Their programme cleverly compared and contrasted works from the Baroque with Bruckner’s 19th century pieces, and the added dimension of brass instrumentalists from the Royal College of Music provided a variety of textures to enhance the vocal drama.

Purcell’s fervent and well-sustained Funeral Sentences were exquisite. Bruckner’s Ecce Sacerdos was mighty in its declamation, and the strategic scattering of voices and instruments around the church provided a delightful echo effect from the small choir in Schutz’s Jauchzet. It also replicated the authentic surround-sound experience of Gabrieli’s O Magnum Mysterium.

The enthusiastic audience was rewarded with an encore, Bruckner’s Locus Iste, bringing the evening to a sublime close.

Jackie Wallace



Vespers: choral works by Rachmaninoff, Tchaichovsky, Grieg and Stravinsky

Colchester Gazette 19th January 2011
Colchester Chamber Choir's first anniversary concert sold out.

After spending a rather wonderful and awe inspiring couple of hours in their company, you can see why.

The candlelit atmosphere of St Theresa’s church, and its impressive acoustics, made for a very pleasant night. But it was the choir that took it up a notch, making for a majestic, exquisite and at times, moving experience.

What it so wonderful about this choir is their choice of music, technically challenging and mostly sung in the original language, but more important than that, little known works previously consigned to the classical annals of time.

With Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Grieg and Rachmaninoff on offer, for me the pick of the night was a composer I’d never heard of before, Peter Lange-Muller.

His Tre Madonnasange was delightfully folky, almost boppy at times, which effortlessly glided through the church as the various sections within the choir swayed in and out, and up and down the scales.

All three soloists, Tessa Freebairn, Paul Burt and Sean Moriarty, should get a mention, especially Sean who was simply superb in Grieg's melancholy Four Psalms.

But it does feel a little harsh to single out any one singer, since the choir itself is of the highest standard.

For its next concert on June 18, at St Botolph’s Church in Colchester, the choir are singing pieces by Gabrieli, Shutz, Purcell and Bruckner. Tickets are available by calling 01206 572783.

Believe me, get them now, because based on this performance it will another sell out.

Neil D’Arcy-Jones