REVIEW: magnificent opening chorus established the fine, firm and well-balanced performance

This year Furness Bach Choir chose for their Christmas concert the music of Bach. The concert opened with his Magnificat, as performed at Christmas 1723, with the insertion of four extra seasonal movements. It opens with a lively chorus that found the choir in great form, although the divided sopranos only just kept the right balance with the rest of the undivided voices. Then came the Christmas Oratorio, first performed in Leipzig in 1734. It has six sections, each of which was performed on a specific day between Christmas and Epiphany, so although conceived as a single work, each section is complete in itself. In this concert the first three sections were performed. The magnificent opening chorus established the fine, firm and well-balanced performance of the choir in all the choral sections of the oratorio. The Bible story of the birth in Bethlehem, the message of the angels to the shepherds and their visit to the manger is told in the recitatives, ably sung by Tristan Moore, while the choir and soloists add comments to the story. In a concert with ten soloists, mainly drawn from the choir, there is no room to review the excellent work of all of them, but the lovely performance of Cathy Styles in the first solo of the Magnificat, the arias sung by her and Deborah Milledge and the duet between Naomi Marczak and Ron Eadington deserve special mention.

The orchestral accompaniment was provided by the Holborne Players, led by Peter Fender, whose solo in the alto aria Schliesse mein Herze was finely performed. The organ continuo was expertly played by Colin Dean as usual. The choir's musical director, Anthony Milledge, conducted the concert and gave a large and appreciative audience a musical treat to start its Christmas celebrations.

ALAN BOLT