Barnes Choir began its all-Elgar programme at All Saints, East Sheen, recently with a performance of Five Early Part Songs, written at the very beginning of the 20th century.
Although the poems now seem to us old fashioned, the musical settings are interesting. The choir, with the sopranos meriting a special mention, performed them in confident and relaxed style which brought out the differing vocal textures of the songs to good effect.
Katy Bingham-Best, the mezzo soprano soloist, then sang the song cycle, Sea Pictures, with the choir's conductor, Andrew Charity, sympathetically and expertly accompanying her on the piano. Again the songs have been criticised as being rather dated and apart from the rather superficial link to the sea, there is no thematic musical connection.
However, Katy's performance accentuated the beauty of the settings, especially in the ever popular Where Corals Lie The main work in the programme, The Music Makers, was immensely popular in the years following its composition in 1912, but is now performed less frequently.
Part of the enjoyment for the audience of this work is spotting familiar quotations from Elgar's previous pieces, which he incorporated into the score in a celebration of his own music. Barnes Choir revelled in the motifs from the Enigma variations and other familiar tunes which enabled them to show off their excellent mellow tones with good climaxes and contrasts.
Katy Bingham-Best was again the thrilling soloist with dramatic interpolations into the choral singing. Julian Collings accompanied the work on the piano with great facility.
So, another interesting evening from Barnes Choir who are to be congratulated on their versatility over the past season in presenting music by such differing composers as Mozart, Honegger and Messiaen, concluding with the Edwardian sentiments and grandeurs of Elgar!
Pam Frazer
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