The Rainbow Chorus: Classics to Classical

I always enjoy Rainbow Chorus concerts, they stand for so much, inclusivity, and by this I do not just mean in terms of gender and sexual preference, but also in musical experience. As a non-audition group the members vary in that musical experience. This means that their ambitious programming always sees them pushing forward the boundaries of what they do – and they do this so well, driven forward by the demanding Aneesa Chaudhry.

On Saturday they tackled Fauré’s Requiem, a piece that by its popularity might be misconstrued as easy. It’s not, it’s a challenging work on many levels, one that saw the chorus pushed not only as ensemble but also in the solos and the duet. It was an impressive performance, not perfect, but impressive none the less and when they did get it right the sound was beautiful. Personally I would have preferred to hear the chorus sing this without the aid of a sound system. St George’s is not a huge space, the choir is a good size and I felt that they could have not only filled the room with their sound but would also have found better levels for the ensembles and the solos, some of which were, in my opinion, rendered crude by amplification.

In the second half they gave us a balance of popular song, works that they always deliver with style and power although on this occasion I also felt that some of the choreography had intruded on the vocal performance and given rise to a lack of focus on their usual precise timing and pitch. Having said this their performance of Anthony’s You Are My Sister was utterly delicious and reminded me of what an exceptional choir the RC is.

Rising to the challenge of increasingly difficult work sees this excellent choir deliver an ever expanding and exciting repertoire, this I love, and I hope that my rather harsher criticism of the most recent concert will be seen as encouraging and as an appreciation of their work and dedication.

St George’s Kemp Town

15 July

Andrew Kay

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