FRINGE – Brighton 16 – Matthew Jelf (Director)

Brighton has a new a capella choir of exceptionally fine quality. They will concentrate on 20th & 21st century repertoire and they have set the bar very high with three sumptuously difficult devotional works. Herbert Howells ‘Take Him, Earth, for Cherishing’ is a poignant lament for the death of John F. Kennedy. The generous acoustic, like a piano’s sustaining pedal, could have smudged the sound, an effect lesser choirs enjoy, but Brighton 16’s tuning is so precise that Howell’s complex harmonies were crystal clear. It is a choir of talented soloists, which Howell’s ‘Requiem’ demonstrated beautifully.

Frank Martin’s ‘Mass for Double Choir’ is famously difficult. I know the singers were all counting furiously but you couldn’t tell that from their alert rapport with their inspirational conductor.