The Lancaster Singers

Kirkby Lonsdale Parish Church
10 June 2006

The atmosphere at St. Mary's Church, Kirkby Lonsdale, on Saturday night was so much more convincing than England's win against Paraguay earlier in the day. The Lancaster Singers performed an ambitious program of French music across three centuries. Kicking off with Sebastien de Brossard's delightfully frothy Domine, Domine the choir sang with a precision and energy that held throughout the concert. In imitation of early French liturgical practice, the choral pieces were charmingly punctuated by short works on the organ sensitively performed by Ian Pattinson, notably his own improvisation on a theme by Cesar Franck.

The choir were similarly virtuosic in their rendition of Debussy's Yver, vous n'etes qu'un villain, revelling in its luscious harmonies and colourful oral palette distinctive to French music, and so appropriate for the gloriously balmy evening. The first half concluded with Faure's Cantique de Jean Racine, an early work composed in Faure's final year at the Ecole Niedermeyer in Paris, for which he won their prize for composition. Set to a translation of a medieval Latin hymn by the 17th Century French dramatist Jean Racine, Faure's exquisitely languorous handling of the text was perfectly captured by the choir, who were fully absorbed by its sweeping melody, as were the audience.

They were now perfectly poised for the second half of the program, Faure's Requiem (1877). The maturity of this work in the composer's oeuvre was further enhanced by the now perfectly warm and cohesive sound from the choir. Interwoven with stellar performances by the soloists, this finale really was a treat for the ears; in the words of a member of the audience behind this critic, it was 'magic', of the midsummer kind.

Florrie Evans
12/06/06

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