The members of the Choir of Dublin's Christ Church Cathedral were in festive mode on Saturday for their annual summer concert, scheduled this year just in advance of their first tour to New Zealand. Their programme offered a sampling of what they will be performing in their four antipodean appearances, as well as a taster of their new CD of Irish anthems on the Priory label.
Since I last heard them, they seem to have developed a greater sensitivity of stylistic response to repertoire, evident on Saturday in the very different characterisation they brought to the opening works by Byrd (Prevent us, O Lord), Brahms (Warum ist das Licht gegeben dem Muhseligen?) and Poulenc (Litanies a la Vierge Noire). They've extended their dynamic range, too, more impressively at the lower end than the upper, where the blend doesn't hold and the forcing of individual voices becomes apparent. Simply put, certain modes of choral singing are more pleasurable for the participants than the auditors, and the choir hasn't yet consistently adjusted itself for the reward of its audience as opposed to its members.
That said, this was a concert of solid achievement. The closing Missa Gloria tibi Trinitas by Taverner not as accident-prone as on its first outing, but not quite as thrilling either. The musical rewards of the evening were enhanced by organist Andrew Johnstone's sensitive handling of Langlais' L'Annonciation - and he showed his contrapuntal ingenuity as a composer in a setting of a very odd text from the Red Book of Ossory.
