All creatures now are merry-minded . . . Bennet
Sing we at pleasure . . . Weelkes
Songs of Nature . . . Dvorak
Two Madrigals . . . Seiber
Alleluia . . . R. Thompson
Reincarnations . . . Barber
Negro spirituals . . . arr. Work
Last Thursday the National Gallery saw the first of two lunchtime concerts by the National Chamber Choir. This was also the first complete concert directed by the choir's apprentice conductor, David Brophy. His programme was on the bitty side, and I would have welcomed another medium-sized group, in addition to Dvorak's Songs of Nature.
Words were not as clear as is possible in this resonant venue. In Elizabethan madrigals by Bennet and Weelkes, and in the 20th-century Two Madrigals by Seiber, texts were not the rhythmic driving force they should be. However, Brophy's emphasis on line and volume was well-suited to the Dvorak and to the 20th-century Romantic styles of Samuel Barber's Reincarnations and Randall Thompson's Alle- luia. In all these the singing was purposeful in expression and reasonably secure in technique.
