The Guildhall, Bath, 4 July 2015

Bath’s prestigious chamber choir chose to celebrate American Independence Day this Saturday with an all-American programme, and where more appropriate than the splendours of Bath’s Guildhall, built at precisely the same moment as our cousins across The Pond were fighting to cede from the English Crown. Sir Joshua Reynolds’s portrait of George III looked out across the Guildhall audience as Bath Camerata took to the stage. He would hardly have approved of such celebrations.

After 29 years under the leadership of former King’s Singer Nigel Perrin, Bath Camerata was also marking its own quiet revolution. This was the first outing under the direction of their gifted new conductor, Benjamin Goodson. And what a splendid debut it was, announcing a renewed focus and purpose from this much-loved choir.

At the heart of the concert stood a beautiful arrangement of the traditional American song Shenandoah, sung with quiet intensity. Tippett’s Spiritual arrangements, Barber’s famous Adagio arranged for voices, and Bernstein’s jazzy Warm Up demonstrated to the full the choir’s impressive expressive range, moving with ease between very different styles. When they sing softly, the music has a powerful concentration; when the 24 voices go off at full tilt, they blow you out of your seat.

Britten’s exceedingly English Flower Songs seemed a little out of place in this programme, and the choir too did not appear entirely convinced, but their strength is their trademark arrangements of popular songs. Regulars will have heard Billy Joel’s And So It Goes many times before, and they perform it brilliantly. Everyone was tapping their feet by the end, and the lengthy ovation was richly deserved.

An excellent start, then, for a new era with Bath Camerata. We look forward with excitement to their development over the coming years. They are truly the jewel in Bath’s choral crown.

Jonathan Cross