Soloists: Zena Bradley (Mezzo), Stephen Cooper (Bass), Margaret Chadwick (Cello), John Keys (Organ)
Choir and organist complemented each other with style and panache
Review by Peter Palmer for Nottingham Evening Post
OUTSIDE the world of French organ music, Maurice Duruflé is remembered for one work, the Requiem Mass he composed in 1947.
In character the piece is largely meditative and intimate – although Duruflé’s setting of the “Pie Jesu” text departs from Fauré’s example and seems to reflect the tribulations of war.
Accompanied by Margaret Chadwick’s cello, Zena Bradley sang an eloquent solo. As a whole, the Requiem was most sensitively realised by the Bach Choir under Paul Hale, Stephen Cooper delivering the powerful baritone prayers of the Offertory and “Libera Me”.
At the Danish pipe organ, John Keys underpinned and decorated the Requiem with his sympathetic accompaniments.
The evening opened with the ripe romanticism of Elgar’s double canticle Te Deum and Benedictus, written for the Three Choirs Festival. With their “Gloria” section, the Bach Choir achieved a truly festive climax.
Margaret Chadwick celebrated JS Bach with the Sarabande and Gigue from his long neglected Cello Suite No. 5, in C minor. This music made a fitting prelude to Haydn’s short but captivating Te Deum, in which choir and organist complemented each other with style and panache.