The Wordsworth Singers, St George’s Church, Kendal

The Wordsworth Singers’ concert entitled O Miracle of Love was pure delight. From a chilly November evening outside, the audience was transported into the warmth and light of St George’s Church in Kendal, as darkness fell.

The slightly depleted choir was nonetheless still well balanced and their positioning around the chancel step meant that their excellent vocal sound was clearly projected into the generous acoustic of the nave.

The interesting and well balanced programme opened with the 1539 motet In illo tempore loquente Jesu by Nicolas Gombert. From the beginning, the choir sang the beautifully woven polyphonic lines clearly and with suitably sympathetic treatment of the words from St Luke’s Gospel.

The Mass setting In illo tempore by Claudio Monteverdi was much more substantial. Written about 70 years later, this Mass setting uses no less than ten of Gombert’s themes and is presented with a lighter balance of voices giving a different texture to the music. Full of interesting and sometimes unexpected harmonies, the five sections were appropriately paced to allow both the emotions and words to come across clearly.

Then the audience were, in complete contrast, treated to the American composer Morten Lauridsen’s Madrigali: six Fire Songs, dating from 1987. These compositions combine Italian Renaissance poetry with strikingly modern harmonies, using carefully constructed dissonant chords right from the opening Fire-Chord. The choir coped admirably with the many challenges of these varied pieces.

Two groups of three pieces were played with exquisite beauty by the distinguished lutenist, Eric Thomas. These works provided gentle interludes of great tranquillity between the fiery madrigals.

Overall, we were presented with two hours of sublime music, extremely ably directed by Mark Hindley.

MIKE TOWN