St Mary in the Castle, Hastings, 21 July 2013

With Hastings awash with Pirates, any potential audience for The English Roses had to battle their way through seas of eye-patches and cutlass waving scurvy dogs just to get there. Thankfully St Mary’s was a cool retreat from the rigours of an unexpected heat wave.

Sophie Pullen and Iuno Connolly both have large voices, more than adequate to fill St Mary’s, and took it in turns to sing the lower part in duets, which was occasionally disconcerting. At present Iuno’s voice seems to have the more obvious cutting edge which helps both diction and flexibility of line, while Sophie’s often heavier tone seems more obviously operatic.

The first half of the programme followed the history of English song in roughly chronological order, opening with a duet from Purcell’s King Arthur followed by Not all my torments and Sweeter than roses. If this helped to set the temperament for the afternoon it was two beautiful setting by Dowland that really brought the performance to life, with a carefully crafted rendition of Flow my tears.

Given that both singers are sopranos, it was not always obvious why specific arias were performed by individual singers. Two items from Handel’s Semele might have been more interesting if sung by the same singer in order to demonstrate the emotional differences between the arias. In the event Iuno Connolly gave us a moving O sleep why dost thou leave me while Sophie Pullen launched into the more sprightly Endless pleasure.

Songs by Quilter and Ireland impressed before the first half ended with two fine settings by Britten and an unexpectedly humorous duet by Balfe.

The second half focussed on opera, bringing more duets, including the familiar Flower duet from Lakme and the Barcarolle from Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann. For the solo items, Iuno gave a thrilling account of Donizetti’s Chacun le sait! and Sophie charmed with O mio babbino caro. Just to keep us on our toes, there were two more Handel arias, Sophie giving a warm rendition of Lascia ch’io pianga  and Iuno producing lovely legato lines for Ombra mai fu.

Nancy Cooley accompanied throughout and maintained an excellent balance in what can often be a difficult acoustic.  BH