Bold step pays off for Bishop’s Stortford Sinfonia and Amici Cantate
Bishop’s Stortford Sinfonia and Amici Cantate choir took a bold step together to present an evening of Mozart.
They performed his Requiem and other masterpieces to a capacity crowd at the Methodist Church in South Street, with Amici’s musical director James Davey as the conductor and Texan-born Tanya Barringer, the sinfonia’s artistic director, as concertmaster.
The soloists were soprano Natasha Page, mezzo Olivia Scott, tenor Gareth Dafydd Morris and bass Jimmy Holliday.
After a rapturous reception to the “triumphant performance”, James said: “It was a concert crammed with spirited, committed singing and an enormous amount of energy.”
The audience included Susan Hickman, an Amici member who is currently the conductor of Thorley and Bishop’s Stortford U3A singers. She is also an accompanist to the Thaxted Singers and reviewed the concert for the Indie.
Sue writes: “For their Christmas and end-of-season concert this year, Amici Cantante took the bold step of setting aside their usual programme of mixed styles and genres in favour of an evening of Mozart, including the Requiem.
“Those of us who are singers can tell you what a challenge it can be to meet the orchestra for the first time on the day of the concert.
“However, the choir sang with full commitment and, under the skilful baton of James Davey, they and the chamber orchestra from the Bishop’s Stortford Sinfonia came together to provide a most delightful and memorable evening.
“Of particular note in the first half was the Ave Verum, emotively sung with a beautiful tone colour, which we heard again in the Lacrymosa, from the Requiem, when the choral quality could be fully appreciated.
“There were many rousing moments, including the comfortably manoeuvred semi-quavers of the Kyrie and the second part of the Hostias, where the choir navigated the contrapuntal style with ease.
“The four superb soloists not only added to the sparkle of the Requiem but also provided snippets of full entertainment with their solos, including arias from the various operas, in the first half.
“The tenor soloist in particular, Gareth Dafydd Morris, left many of us feeling that we had been sitting in the Royal Opera House. All in all, it was a very exceptional evening.”
In return for donations, the audience enjoyed cake and hot drinks served in the interval by volunteers from Red Kite, a charity founded in Bishop’s Stortford to support survivors of rape and sexual abuse. The good cause also organised a fundraising raffle.
