TYNDALE Choral Society, with the Tyndale Concert Orchestra, conducted by Michael Power, performed works by Mozart, Handel and Rutter in Dursley Parish Church on Saturday.

The evening was a delight and amply repaid the initial effort of abandoning one’s fireside on a decidedly chilly November evening!

The concert began with Mozart’s very beautiful Ave Verum, in which the choir performed with expressive phrasing and clarity of diction. This was followed by three of his Epistle sonatas, originally written as voluntaries for the Mass in Salzurg Cathedral. This was stylishly placed rococo music for strings and organ.

Next the soprano soloist, Penelope Price Jones, gave a masterly account of Mozart’s solo motet Exultate Jubilate, the clarity and purity of her voice matching the style of this sparkling, almost operatic writing. Two more Epistle sonatas, this time for wind, strings and organ, were then followed by Handel’s coronation anthem, Let Thy Hand be Strengthened, with its impressive opening chorus and reflective larghetto.

The main work, after the interval, was John Rutter’s Requiem for soprano solo, chorus and orchestra and here again the choir gave a most moving performance. Rutter’s lovely melodies unfolded with apparent ease, concealing beautiful phrasing and intonation and effectively managed dynamics. The restrained tension of the opening Requiem Aeternum reappeared with greater urgency in the Agnus Dei and in contrast the Sanctus was full of life and joy.

The soprano solos were delivered with great conviction, culminating in the memorable ascending phrase which soars above the chorus at the end of the Pie Jesu and again in the Lux Aeterna, leading to the last long choral phrases over expressive harp accompaniment to the words ‘may light perpetual shine upon them’.

L V J
November 1991