The last concert in the National Chamber Choir's Millennium Series at the National Gallery concentrated on "some of the less-well-known music of the 20th century", all of it save Ian Wilson's nine(birds)here from the first half of the century. The other advertised work from the second half of the century, Milhaud's Traversee, a 1961 commission for the Cork International Choral Festival, wasn't performed, "because the music arrived too late".
It was, on all counts, a frustrating event. Texts and translations were provided for the works, but were printed separately rather than side-by-side. Potted biographies of the composers were provided, but, except for the Wilson, not even the date of composition of the works themselves.
The performances matched the looseness of the way the overall concept was presented. The singing was undifferentiated and unconvincing in musical style, far from clear in harmonic colouring, imprecise in attack and rhythm, and variable in the standard of solo contributions, the strongest of which was Mary O'Sullivan's in a Porgy and Bess pot-pourri.
It is high time this choir made the transition from ideas that are worthy (though worthier still would be a presentation of the great works of the 20th century) to concerts which are consistently musically worthwhile.
