St Nicolas, Pevensey, Saturday 9 July 2016
The arrival of the Choristers of Canterbury Cathedral will surely be recalled as a high moment in the celebrations of the 800th anniversary of St Nicholas Church, Pevensey. Introduced in relaxed fashion by their musical director Dr David Flood, they provided outstanding musicianship and exemplary singing for all too short a time.
They opened with Michael McGlynn’s modern setting of Maria matrem with its crisp, soaring lines floating around the building, before the gentle sentimentality of Handel’s Did you see my lady. There were two items by Vivaldi – a bright setting of Tecum principium with its extended coloratura, and the canon duets of Virgam virtutis. Between these we heard Caccini’s Ave Maria, which is popular and familiar, even if it is not by Caccini!
Guy Steed, who accompanied throughout, gave the choir a break with an organ solo from Bach, playing the G minor Fugue and demonstrating the strengths of the St Nicolas organ.
The first half concluded with two short excerpts from Britten’s Missa brevis. This was outstanding even by the choir’s own standards and made us realise how well Britten writes for boys’ voices.
The second half moved away from the liturgical to let us hear another side of the choir’s repertoire, opening with two familiar duets – the Flower Duet from Delibes’ Lakme and the Barcarolle from Les Contes d’Hoffmann. If the tempi for both were on the fast side, the accuracy was splendid.
Timothy Noon’s Evocation to a friend was written for the choir and draws on their strengths for part-singing and the gentle clash of voices.
After another brief organ solo – part of a Fantasie by Saint-Saens – we came to the final set of items drawn from more popular music. As David Flood noted, the choir have to learn these in addition to their normal repertoire as they are not part of the daily liturgy! They opened with This little light of mine, moved on to Puttin’ on the Ritz (though they showed good taste by pronouncing all the final gs!) America and concluded with Time to say goodbye.
All too soon they were back on the coach for Canterbury, with a 9.30am rehearsal ahead before the Sunday liturgy.
It had taken four years to get the choir to Pevensey but it was certainly worth the wait and a tribute to all concerned. A wonderful evening which will be remembered for a long time.