Brighton Chamber Choir and Resound: Water Night

This themed collaboration between two Brighton and Hove choirs proved to be not only a fascinating exercise but also a thoroughly entertaining evening. A mixed programme of music  that had the BCC at times joined by Resound to great effect, the strength of the latter adding weight to the lower voices that can be so often lacking in choirs with fewer male voices. BCC’s choices included Elgar, Barber, and Vaughan Williams and these they executed with style and precision, perhaps only faltering in the quieter passages.

Resound’s choice were far more eclectic and varied and included beautifully arranged shanties, vocal jive jazz and modern folk. But it was the inclusion of a challenging raga and the tongue twisting Dindirin that displayed their skills to best effect, complex in both timing and tuning for the raga in particular, and pulled off masterfully. I particularly likes the beautiful quartet Some Day, a sung eulogy in the blue grass style, that displayed Resound’s ability to embrace so many musical forms. Their choirmaster Stefan Holmström certainly makes them work very hard, as of course does Jane Money with the BCC.

One can only hope that this collaborative initiative is the first in a series of excellent concerts.

8 July

St Andrew’s Church

Andrew Kay

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