Hereford Choral Society sing Bach and Handel (From Hereford Times)

Hereford Choral Society sing Bach and Handel

10:52am Thursday 26th November 2009 in

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BACH and Handel, those giants of the Baroque period, had a lot in common. Exact contemporaries, both were German, both were masters of musical structure and both composed iconic choral works. At another level, though, they were like chalk and cheese. Handel’s style is theatrical and direct and his choruses are immediately singable by amateurs. Bach’s music, by contrast, is meditative and cerebral, its intricate harmonies and counterpoint more suited to trained musicians. These differences showed in Hereford Choral Society’s cathedral concert on Saturday. Directed by Geraint Bowen, it opened with Bach’s single-movement Cantata 50, an imposing, complex piece for double choir which received an enthusiastic but over-weighty performance that had the players of the Marches Baroque and the chorus struggling to keep together. They fared better in the other Bach work, the Magnificat in D. Although Bach’s fluid lines would again have been better served by a lighter choral style, the five excellent soloists lifted matters with some classy, elegant singing, especially in ensemble. In between we were treated to Handel’s little-performed Dettingen Te Deum, a grandiose work that glorifies military triumph rather more than the Almighty. Containing many musical ideas borrowed from Messiah, it found both chorus and orchestra on much happier ground. Sopranos Natalie Clifton-Griffith and Lucy Bowen had to wait for the Magnificat to express their artistry, but their male colleagues – counter-tenor Robin Tyson, tenor Simon Wall and baritone Giles Underwood – were able to do full justice, separately and collectively, to Handel’s unfailing melodic magic.

John Rushby-Smith