Martin Adamsreviews the National Chamber Choir under the baton of Robert Hollingworth for their first performance of the new lunchtime series at the National Gallery

NCC/Hollingworth
National Gallery, Dublin

Monteverdi - Rimante in pace.
Tomkins - Was ever wretch tormented. Poulenc - Sept chansons.
Adrian Williams - Sweetest Love. Dhlamini - Woah Lashona.

The concept behind the National Chamber Choir's new lunchtime series at the National Gallery of Ireland is interesting. Take three choral conductors with a high international reputation and ask each to devise a programme by "composers who have been a source of influence and inspiration in each of their careers and artistic achievements".

The conductor for this first in the "Portraits" series was Robert Hollingworth. He is perhaps most famous as the musician who founded I Fagiolini in 1986, but his experience ranges far wider than that famous choir.

Hollingworth began with Monteverdi, the composer on whose reputation I Fagiolini is built. The first three seconds of Rimante in pace, from the Third Book of Madrigals, made it clear that this performance was intended to be shaped around the rhythm of the words rather than metrically even beats.

That's probably how things should be and, although the singing did not always deliver with finely graded fluidity, and the words were by no means as clear as they should have been, this was an impressive example of sensitively paced and defined music making.

Hollingworth conducts more as a guiding intelligence than as a controller. The singers have to listen and share his understanding. It's a demanding stance that did not always achieve the best that is possible with these musicians, but the results were always engaging.

The most complete, well-rounded performances were of Poulenc's Sept Chansons and Dhlamini's Woah Lashona.

Hollingworth described the latter as the result of a South African township music project that he had been involved in. As the singers swayed and sang in discourse with one another and Hollingworth's fine solos, it occurred to me that this song had a natural authenticity that many European composers would envy.