dixit dominus
Saturday 30 november 2019, 7:30pm
holy trinity church, Bradford on avon
A very special performance of George Frideric Handel’s masterpiece Dixit Dominus, written when he was just 22 years old. The acclaimed Bath based chamber choir joined forces with soloists and a period instrument orchestra in the stunning setting of Holy Trinity Church in Bradford on Avon.
In the first half of the programme, Dietrich Buxtehude’s mesmerising cantata Jesu, Meines Lebens Leben was performed by the group, before J.S. Bach’s beautiful Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland BWV 61, written for the first Sunday in Advent.
For the concert programme, click here.
Review
To a packed church Sarah Latto brought two sparkling musical gifts. One was the abundance of beautiful sound from the Paragon Singers, the other was an assembly of five top class soloists and a small professional Baroque orchestra led by a world class violinist Kinga Ujszászi. In the audience we became engaged that evening in an experience of great wonder and excitement. To start was a Buxtehude cantata Jesu, Meines Lebens Leben followed by a Bach Cantata Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland. Both sung with beautifully fluid lines and firm well modulated tone. Then a performance of Biagio Marini’s Passacaglia where we heard the true finesse of the orchestra alone, directed by Kinga Ujszászi. It was after the interval that Sarah’s two gifts were sumptuously presented with thrilling effect in Handel’s Dixit Dominus. The opening chorus was full of finely disciplined attack and exuberance, followed by two gorgeous solos, the first of which, Virgam virtutis, was memorable in the way the tone of the ‘cello continuo from Henrik Persson, blended so perfectly with contralto, Martha McLorinan. Space forbids a detailed description of the rest of this mighty work but does not stop my saying that something very special was taking place. The shading between fortissimo and pianissimo, the poetic shaping of line, the crispness of attack, the unrushed vigour and tempi, the sheer joy of it, the astonishing drama and effect of the staccato Conquassabit, the moments where there was complete silence before a next entry. Above all, the beauteous sound of the choir in full voice. It was an utterly marvellous performance. Thank you.
Antony Corfe