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"Guy
Protheroe conducted serene performances of Verdi's
Pater Noster and Ave Maria , coolly
and tenderly shaped."
Financial
Times
"Problems
of language and technique make the unaccompanied choral
music of Strauss and Schoenberg a forbidding area
for most performers. Yet, as Saturday's Purcell Room
concert by the English Chamber Choir demonstrated,
a dedicated ensemble can overcome these challenges
and uncover music of real distinction and richness...
An instinct for the correct tempo proved to be the
crucial factor in the Strauss... In two heavyweight
settings of Schiller and Rückert, Der Abend
and Hymne , the conductor Guy Protheroe
was careful to measure the music's progress in terms
of the full-blooded language of Strauss's ripest maturity.
His singers avoided any temptation to linger over
the rich chromatic polyphony and beguiling harmonic
ellipses, unravelling the Rückert's tortuous
central fugue in a radiant conclusion of Straussian
serenity."
The
Independent
"The
finest performance was reserved for the seductive
hybrid of Vaughan Williams' Flos Campi ,
drawing out all the ecstatic allure and exoticism
of what must surely be its composer's most sensuous
and sensual score."
Daily
Telegraph
"The
Choir produced a good, warm body of sound and sang
with a firm, legato line. They were alert and well-controlled,
capable of both hushed tones and dramatic colour.
This was one of the rare occasions when I have felt
that a choir was evenly balanced within the four voices;
movement of the inner parts was clear, but never overriding
in one section or another." (Bach: St John
Passion )
Hampstead
& Highgate Express
"The Choir sang beautifully. They had enormous dynamic
and emotional range, and would turn in a moment from
dispassionate commentary to being a crowd baying viciously
for Christ's blood." (Bach: St Matthew Passion)
Hampstead
& Highgate Express
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