St Augustine’s, Bexhill, Saturday 11 May 2019

A beautiful spring evening after a day of showers seemed the perfect setting for an concert of modern English choral music, wistfully melancholic and gently lyrical.

Bexhill Choral Society opened with John Rutter’s The Sprig of Thyme, the pun on time being quite deliberate as most of the folk song arrangements will be virtually unknown to anyone under fifty as they have long since dropped out of the school curriculum. The theme of unrequited or abandoned love united the eleven songs, which included a sensitively unaccompanied Willow Song for the choir and a finely honed solo of The Sprig of Thyme from soprano Lucy Ashton. Peter Grevatt’s splendidly edgy rendition of The Miller of Dee hinted at the sense of isolation and depression which lies behind the bluff exterior. Rutter’s orchestration reflects Finzi and Vaughan Williams, and is richly romantic.

This romantic edge continued in Kenneth Roberts own setting of According to Thy Word – the Prayer Book text of the Nunc Dimittis. Stylistically the short work ranges convincingly in style from a Ravel-like pastoral mood to a Caribbean enthusiasm. Where the Rutter had been reflectively melancholic, this was happily positive and often extrovert in its warmth.

After the interval we heard Rutter’s Requiem which uses some sections of the traditional mass alongside other Biblical texts. As expected, Rutter can’t avoid the extensively lyrical and the tension of the opening Requiem Aeternam quickly gives way to a gently memorable melody. Lucy Ashton filled out the lines of the Pie Jesu with ease before the jolly bells of the Sanctus and the surprisingly stark setting of the Agnus Dei. The very long lines of the concluding Lux Aeterna proved to be no problem for the choir which had risen to the dynamic challenges of all three works with ease.

The chamber orchestra gave strong support, and it was good to hear Alex Rider in the important harp parts throughout.

The next concert is in October when they will bring us Beethoven’s Mass in C and Mendelssohn’s Hear My Prayer.