Canticle Chamber Choir, James Lloyd Thomas (conductor)

Canticle Chamber Choir celebrated the Britten Centenary in style with two popular seasonal offerings. They displayed a wide range of musical colours in ‘A Ceremony of Carols’ and were beautifully accompanied by Anna Wynne on the harp. The few male voices were dangerously exposed in processional plainchant but were well balanced otherwise. The solo soprano voices were delightfully pure, achieving the treble sound that Britten wrote for. Nicholas Chisholm (tenor) gave a strong lead in Britten’s ‘Saint Nicholas’ cantata, projecting well over the various textures of the accompaniment and the somewhat wayward cellos. The orchestra also played Grieg’s ‘Holberg Suite’.

St Paul’s Church, 7 December 2013

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