Review in the Newbury Weekly News, 13 November 2008

Newbury Chamber Choir and Orchestra at St John's Church, Newbury , on Saturday, November 8

Reviewed by Patrick Cogswell

Anthem was choir's crowning glory

A jam-packed church gave a festive feel to Newbury Chamber Choir’s concert on this night of torrential rain.  It didn’t inhibit Edward Lambert and the Newbury Chamber Choir and Orchestra from presenting an offering with more goodies than Christmas itself.

The first course was Haydn’s St Nicholas Mass. Guy Edwards has a very light and airy baritone voice which worked splendidly with Paul Robinson’s forthright tenor.  Mixing the very deep and rich tone of Jeanette Ager with the brilliant operatic sound of Olivia Hinman was more problematic.  The choir and the orchestra, led with a flourish by Jean Paterson, watched attentively as the battle unfolded.

That, however, was just the start.  The church’s remarkable Byzantine nave was soon filled with wave after wave of Handel’s Water Music, to match the downpour outside.  The.crucial parts of this display were taken firstly by the French horns of Hugh Seenan and Simon de Souza, and then by the oboes of Elizabeth Fife and Lydia Griffiths Both groups played an immaculate and pacy allegro followed by the hornpipe finale.  The Aria was a surprise too: usually a meditative piece, Edward Lambert’s ever-refreshing direction zipped it up to nearly double its usual speed.

Refreshments over, on came an eagerly-awaited James Toll – a very busy man these days – who began his violin training with John Kane in Newbury and is now, at the age of 21, conducting as well as playing at a number of very distinguished venues.  No pomp and circumstance here, however; as he chatted casually with the ensemble before putting forth his Mozart Concerto in A Major.

As was the custom of the time, he directed the orchestra from the front, to their evident enjoyment, fluidly quoting all manner of perennial favourites in the cadenza; such is this young man’s comprehensive command of music.  I’m sorry not to have asked about his instrument and bow.  The effect of both was electric.

Duly charged up, choir and orchestra burst forth in a glorious version of Handel’s Coronation Anthem complete with a prototype Hallelujah Chorus.  This anthem evidently got King George II off to a magnificent start and it brought us to a glorious conclusion. Part of the pleasure lay in reading the scholarly and entertaining programme notes.  I asked Edward Lambert for the author’s name.  “I suppose it was me” was the answer.  I rest my case.