Music

Plymouth Philharmonic Choir: An Italian Evening at the Guildhall (review)

29th June 2009

It was a bold move to include Donizetti’s Requiem in a programme of Italian music for a mid-summer’s evening.

History has shown it to be one of the composer’s less popular works, and, weighing in at some eighty minutes, is definitely long-haul material - especially in the unyielding conditions and poor ventilation of the Guildhall on such a warm night, and which the whirring fans did little to alleviate.

While there were moments when it came to life, it did really make for an over-long first half, and subsequent late finish.

The choir, in their newly-chosen uniform which did add some visual relief, albeit rather haphazardly, did their very best with the material to hand, but even those soloists who had sung on previous occasions sounded less at ease here.

Fortunately Puccini’s Messa di Gloria was far more like what was needed for this essentially lighter programme.

Here the choir was back on song, aided by some stirring orchestral playing, which conductor, Christopher Fletcher, made good use of to produce some effective climaxes.

Donizetti soloists, Catherine Hamilton (soprano) and Rebecca Smith, pictured top (mezzo-soprano), were able to take an early bath, leaving David Watkin-Holmes, pictured bottom (tenor), John Hobbs (baritone) and Mark Boocock (bass) to deliver the composer’s unmistakeable melodic lines, even if the balance between them and their co-resources might just have been managed somewhat more sympathetically at times.

PHILIP R BUTTALL

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