Music Review: Chester Music Society Choir, Chester Cathedral

Nov 26 2007 by Glyn Mon Hughes, Liverpool Daily Post

IF MENDELSSOHN had chosen to write operas, Elijah would have been a highly successful debut composition.

For this is a work which combines high drama with all the operatic ingredients of rejection, intrigue and final triumph. It’s a piece which is highly colourful, full of moments of intense emotion and choral interventions which would be far more at home on the stage of a theatre than as part of a sacred oratorio.

And if triumph was a word to be associated with Elijah, the performance by Chester Music Society Choir with Liverpool Sinfonia was certainly that, judging from both an impeccable performance and the rapturous and enthusiastic applause which echoed round a freezing Chester Cathedral.

Graham Jordan Ellis conducted a fast-paced performance in which the chorus lived up to its increasingly formidable reputation. They negotiated the tricky fugal passages, in choruses such as Be Not Afraid, with ease. The fortissimo drama, such as in the final chorus, presented no problems, while the delicacy of the familiar Lift Thine Eyes was exquisite.

It was interesting to note that the four principal soloists all have extensive experience on the operatic stage which, in many ways, added to the performance, especially the extremes of mood which the composer calls for.

Bass Simon Kirkbride, singing Elijah, was dramatic and fitted the role perfectly. Of particular note was his performance of It Is Enough. Icily detached and introverted in a sorrowful way.

Much the same was true of tenor Philip O’Brien, though his rather piercing voice did not always blend with colleagues, notably in Cast Thy Burden Upon The Lord. Yet his performance of If With All Thy Hearts was exquisite.

The roles demanded of soprano Una Barry and mezzo Louise Mott were achieved with ease, and treble Marco Galvani, singing a small role as the youth, should not be forgotten.

The accompaniment of Liverpool Sinfonia, along with the enthusiasm of the chorus, made this yet another triumphant night for Chester Music Society Choir.