Saturday 8 May 2004
Guildford Cathedral
Bach B Minor Mass
Thames Philharmonic Choir
Thames Festival Orchestra

On Saturday a packed Guildford Cathedral played host to new performers, the Thames Philharmonic Choir, an amateur group who for the past forty years have given concerts in south-west London. With the Thames Festival Orchestra they came to Guildford with an ambitious programme, Bach's sublime Mass in B Minor.

From the outset it was apparant that much thought had been given to the Cathedral's acoustics. The pace chosen by conductor John Bate was therefore on the slow side, a sharp contrast to the slick 'authentic' performances that have become common today. What was lost as a result was any sense that Bach had based most of the movements of his masterpiece on dance rhythms. What was gained was an essential clarity in the vocal and particularly orchestral lines.

Indeed the playing of the glorious orchestral solos was a highlight of this performance, the flute solo in the Benedictus and the horn solo in the Quoniam being particularly good. Of the vocal soloists, soprano Harriet Fraser had a good wam tone and blended particularly well with the tenor soloist Andrew Carwood in the duet Domine Deus. Mr Carwood later gave a pure, calm interpretation of the Benedictus, replete with triplets. The male alto Timothy Penrose (standing in for Alison Renvoize at very short notice) gave a superb rendering of Agnus Dei, and bass Michael Bundy gave a bold, deeply committed performance of the Quoniam as well as managing the higher vocal range of Et in Spiritum Sanctum very capably and lyrically.

The well-drilled chorus, one hundred strong, have a confident tone and a considerable dynamic range, as proved by their performance of the wonderful fugal closing movement Dona nobis pacem and the sheer profundity of Qui Tollis, Et incarnatus and Crucifixus (in which movements the orchestral melodies came over remarkably clearly). The tenors, although few in number, sang out clearly, but in comparison, the altos needed more strength of tone. The basses were strong in their moment of glory in the Et resurrexit, but the impression was that the sopranos had to work very hard.

Indeed we could not have wished for a greater sense of enjoyment in an uplifiting performance that gave both choir and orchestra a great deal of credit.

Shelagh Godwin, Surrey Advertiser, May 2004