Review

Ilkley and Otley Choral Societies

St Margaret’s Church

The combined forces of Ilkley and Otley Choral Societies came together on Saturday night at St Margaret’s for a splendid performance of Handel’s great oratorio, Messiah.

An audience in excess of 400 listened with rapt attention and stood as one for the Hallelujah chorus.

The large chorus was aided by the excellent Yorkshire Chamber Ensemble, who shaped the overture beautifully and were supportive and stylish and gave pleasure throughout the evening.

The combined choirs were responsive to their conductor’s beat – the clear and committed Alan Horsey – and made a solid, well-balanced sound, though the altos needed to be more incisive to balance everyone else. Did the chorus manage to articulate the runs in Unto Us at Alan Horsey’s racy speed? Up to a point… The soloists were all satisfactory, particularly the bass, James Birchall, who triumphed in The Trumpet Shall Sound, as did the trumpet soloist Jamie O’Brien.

The alto soloist Kate Woodruff was wonderfully expressive in He Was Despised.

Soprano Una Barry, resplendent in emerald green, announced the angelic chorus in commanding tones and was agile in the rarely heard 12/8 version of Rejoice Greatly (complete with pizzicato double bass).

Her voice was too tremulous for the pure lines of I Know That My Redeemer Liveth.

Tenor Stephen Mui was expressive in the lovely recitatives which launched the second half, but was very unhappy with his top notes, which sounded strained.

The work was judiciously cut – I particularly missed the aria But Who May Abide? after the early bass recitative Thus Saith The Lord.

I am probably the wrong person to review this performance of Messiah.

As well as being director of music at St Margaret’s, I personally know the conductor, two of the soloists and the continuo harpsichord player and have conducted Messiah myself many times, besides playing organ or harpsichord continuo or singing the tenor solos on countless occasions.

However, I found the whole two-and- a-half-hour event very enjoyable, largely because of the excellent instrumental playing and enthusiastic choral singing.

What a pity the names of the superb players of the Yorkshire Chamber Ensemble were not listed in the programme – nor the Otley Choral Society singers for that matter.

I particularly enjoyed the use of an excellent bassoon continuo in some numbers (All We Like Sheep, for instance).

The whole event was a triumph for the two choral societies – St Margaret’s is not always this full!

Christopher Rathbone