Choir in fine voice to meet tough challenge

IT would take more than snow, freezing temperatures and seasonal illness to prevent Saddleworth Male Voice Choir and a ladies’ chorus from giving its 48th performance of Handel’s “Messiah”.

The chorus was in fine voice and had been well rehearsed to cope with the demands of some of Handel’s most challenging choral writing. In the majority of choruses they managed the complex contrapuntal lines with clarity, balance and good intonation.

The ensemble used tone colours well, particularly in “Since By Man Came Death”, in which the pathos of the text was strongly portrayed.

In a performance where none of the choruses are cut, stamina is an issue, and occasionally in one or two of the chorus, this was evident.

The soloists were all students or former students of the Royal Northern College of Music. Jennifer Rust (soprano) had a clear, strong voice used to greatest effect in “I Know My Redeemer Liveth”, revealing a variety of tone colour to portray the meaning of the text.

The contralto part was sung by mezzo Helen Gregory, whose lovely, rich tone was a pleasure to listen to, and a perfect blend with the tenor in the Duet “O Death”.

But as is often the case when sung by a mezzo soprano, the demands of the lower tessitura in this very demanding role weren’t met with quite the right degree of strength and confidence.

The tenor soloist was David Shaw, whose performance was the highlight of the evening.

David has a beautiful, lyric tenor voice used to great effect in each of his arias and recitative parts.

Always controlled and expressive, he presented the long, melismatic passages with ease as well as bringing a great deal of pathos to the more lyrical lines.

The bass soloist, Ian Anderson Gray, was a late substitution. Ian — born in Oldham — gave a solid performance, his mellow, light tone perhaps not quite having the gritty edge to convey the “Furious Rage of the Nations”, yet his “Trumpet Shall Sound” was a delight, superbly complemented by David Chapman on trumpet.

The Pennine Orchestra was led with great skill by Donald Clarke; the continuo of harpsichord (Peter Collier) and cello (Angela Costello) offering vital and sensitive support to the evening.

The evening was pulled together once again by conductor Damian Cunningham, his work as conductor and choral director showing great clarity of diction, rhythmic precision, attention to detail and musicality.

Mr Cunningham uses the whole forces available to him and here produced a performance that left both performers and audience proud to have contributed yet again to an evening in the company of one of the greatest of English choral works.

AR