A large and appreciative audience enjoyed a wonderful performance of Handel’s Messiah by Levens Choir.
There can be few amateur choirs in the UK who could provide their own soloists, and indeed more than one per voice part, for such a work.
Yet on March 21 in in Kendal Parish Church, nine members of the choir – one was sadly absent through ill health – stepped into the limelight to do just that.
We were treated to clear, bright and bell like qualities from sopranos Polly Cotterill and Laura Simmons.
Contraltos Tasha Caisley, Sarah Harris and Catherine Driver invoked a sense of stillness and drama.
Tenors Doug Addy and Andrew Rebus, as well as Jim Bloomer, brought a near professional standard, complete with suitable Handelian embellishments from Doug, and basses Charlie Lewis and David Russell added their attractive tonal quality and impressive breath control.
These were fine voices, with good technique and deep commitment to the music as well as to the story telling. Bravo!
So often performed in part at Christmastime, it was good to hear the full work just a week before Holy Week.
There was almost a reluctance among the audience to applaud before the interval as we were so caught up in the narrative.
The performance had a great sense of forward thrust which had us captivated from the start.
The choir was on excellent form, dynamics were widely varied, entries always confident, the ensemble secure and the melismatic singing quite breathtakingly accomplished.
Under conductor Gawain Glenton, the singing was beautifully light and articulate, leaving plenty of headroom for the more dramatic word painting, as for instance in the words Wonderful and Counsellor in the chorus ‘For Unto us a Child is Born.
Though my favourite singing was in All We Like Sheep, in which detached notes were balanced by legato lines, and where, in what can feel like a pea soup of a fugue, every important line came subtly but clearly out of the texture.
Ian Pattinson playing the chamber organ in the church, provided secure accompaniment throughout, in spite of the tempi occasionally required of him!
He was a particularly sensitive accompanist to all the soloists and added to the dramatic sections, always with perfect balance between organ and choir.
Levens Choir continues on its upward trajectory, and under Gawain, skills and vocal quality continue to develop.
There is much attention to detail, and an unshowy yet sincere and intentional approach to performance.
For the audience this afforded an intimate and deeply satisfying experience of such a well-loved work, in which meaning was never subservient to, but always enhanced by, the music.
