The "Winter Warmers" series of choral concerts at the National Gallery continued last Thursday evening with the choir of Christ Church Cathedral, conducted by Mark Duley.
Several aspects of this concert stood out. The diverse one-hour programme worked because it was grouped by compositional and regional tradition. The choir's technical security and unanimity were never in doubt. Most interestingly, there was at least one attempt to sing in a way other than the English-speaking choral style on which this choir is perforce founded.
Poulenc's Quatre motets pour le temps de Noel were secure and defined. But they might have been better had the choir been less concerned with precision in every event, and more concerned with the timing of space in their fragmented phrasing, and with rounded attack.
Ultimately, the vigorous textures of a Bach motet proved less rewarding than the complex but less profound music by composers in the English tradition, including John Rutter and Irishman Charles Wood. In the former, the result was a bit unrelenting, even hectoring; in the latter, everything felt right.
In many respects the most interesting singing came in the "Ave Maria" from Rachman inov's Vespers. The sound was almost Russian in its fruity intensity and long phrasing. It was a rewarding manifestation of this choir's ability and stylistic potential.