Cantatibus organis - Philips
Tibi laus - Philips
Hymn to St Cecilia - Britten
Fantasia No 7 - Dowland
Gemini - Jerome de Bromhead
Three Motets of Serenity - Colin Mawby
Love's Tempest - Elgar
Serenade - Elgar
Five Childhood Lyrics - John Rutter
The National Chamber Choir's "Sacred and Profane" concert series ended at the National Gallery last Thursday evening. The programme of unaccompanied vocal music by English-born composers was an apt conclusion, for it is English music that the NCC has tended to do best when conducted by its artistic director, Colin Mawby.
The instrumental music customary in these concerts always feels like a filler, even when the playing has the panache which guitarist Michael O'Toole brought to Jerome de Bromhead's Gemini. He also gave a thoughtful, stylistically aware performance of a Dowland fantasia. The NCC's apprentice conductor, David Brophy, directed two Elgar part songs. Love's Tempest and Serenade are difficult, and these confident performances were notable for the depth of tone produced in quiet passages. Colin Mawby took the rest of the programme.
In two motets by Dowland's contemporary, Peter Philips, tone of that kind might have resulted in a more defined sound. However, there were few such problems in Britten's much more demanding Hymn to St. Cecilia, which was nicely coloured and shapely.
Colin Mawby's Three Motets of Serenity were receiving their first performance. These plainsong-based compositions have a cosmopolitan flavour - there were echoes of Part, Poulenc and chant in new-age style, drones and all - which makes them inherently more interesting than the updated English pastoral style of much of Mawby's music.
The evening ended with John Rutter's Five Childhood Lyrics. This music is all gloss - altogether too clever. Nevertheless, the decisive, lively singing made a strong end to a concert which sometimes saw the NCC and Colin Mawby at their best.
