Handel's The
Creation (December 3rd, 2006)
This performance, under Penrith
Singers' conductor Colin Marston, with orchestra led by Susan Johnson and
soloists from the RNCM in Manchester - Emma Peaurt (soprano), Alexander Wall
(tenor) and Mark Rowlandson (bass), was as fresh and exciting as the first
performance must have been to that Viennese audience.
Despite the wet and windy weather, there was a good audience, with the church
almost full. The Penrith area should be proud to be able to raise a choir and
orchestra of this standard from a population of its size. Nicholas Howard
Puccini's Messa di
Gloria (May 2006)
The majority of this work is for
chorus and it was apparent that the choir enjoyed the operatic nature of some
of the movements, a glimpse of Puccini's works to come. There were some
delightful, lyrical and beautifully-shaped phrases from the sopranos and
sections for soprano and alto voices were particularly memorable. Having said
that, the full choral sound was thrilling throughout but particularly so in the
Qui tollis section.Helen
Snowball Cumberland and Westmorland Herald
Brahms's
Requiem
Brahms's Requiem is a
deeply felt work occasioned by the death of the composer's mother and some
contemporaries believed, was the act of mourning for the untimely death of his
great friend Robert Schumann a decade before. It is a magnificent piece
of music and to perform it with such success is a tribute to Colin Marston, the
conductor and the choir itself, to say nothing of the fine orchestral
accompaniment. R.H.Bartle
Cumberland and Westmorland Herald
Dream of
Gerontius
Their [ the choir's]
performance was powerful and committed and sung with well rehearsed accuracy,
from the soft chant-like passage Noe, from the waters in a saving home,
to the punctuated fortissimo of In the name of angels and archangels,
from the tightly disciplined and ferocious Demon's Chorus to the
magnificence of Praise to the holiest in the height.
We had here in Penrith a
worthy performance of the piece which Elgar himself described as 'the best of
me'
L.K. Tomlinson
December Concert 2003 [
Mozart, Haydn, Handel]
This was a memorable concert
in which soloists and choir were admirably supported by the supremely competent
orchestra under the leadership of Susan Johnson. The woodwind and brass
excelled themselves. All credit to Colin Marston and Penrith
Singers.
R.H.Bartle Cumberland and
Westmorland Herald
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