Christ Church, Hastings, Saturday 9 July 2016

The summer concert drew together Hastings Philharmonic Choir and Sedlescombe School Choir, leading to a packed audience in Christ Church, with large numbers of small children.

Over the last twenty five years Marian Hame has worked tirelessly to maintain a high standard of choral singing in Sedlescombe and this was very obvious from their crisp diction and exemplary balance in Anderson’s Father in my life I see and Townend’s lyrically pleasing setting of The Lord is my Shepherd.

The children’s choir also joined HPC to sing the Pie Jesu in Faure’s Requiem which concluded the programme. The adult choir was in its usual fine form and the Sanctus was particularly pleasing. Conductor Marcio da Silva provided the baritone solo for Hostias and Libera me adding to his reputation as a solo singer, following his recent Schumann recital.

If the concert had simply been the items noted above all would probably have been well but there was a severe miscalculation over the nature of the event. The afternoon had opened with Carissimi’s Jephte. This is a lovely work providing a subtle setting of the tragedy with a profoundly moving final chorus. Unfortunately it sounded under-rehearsed, with soloists ill-prepared. Though the programme listed a cast there was no indication of who was who, as no text was provided and no detailed programme note. As a result the audience became restive during the first half-hour of the performance, and it was obvious many families were having to work extremely hard to keep smaller children engaged.

Given that HCP now has a very high reputation for their performances this was unexpected and potentially off-putting for any members of the audience coming to choral music for the first time.

Where this could have been a delightful afternoon encouraging children in the joys of adult choral music, this may have seriously dented their interest.