Michael Dungan finds the Palestrina Choir's vowels ring with a "warm, homogeneous purity".
Palestrina Choir, OSC/Murphy, St Ann's Church, Dublin
Bach - Cantatas 20, 2, 174
Boy choristers made a rare appearance at the Orchestra of St Cecilia's ongoing 10-year survey of Bach's church cantatas. The survey, now in its fifth year and featuring a variety of predominantly adult choirs in its annual series of Sunday afternoon concerts, resumed last weekend with performances by the Pro-Cathedral's Palestrina Choir.
The distinctive timbre of boys' voices provided a refreshing whiff of historical authenticity in music composed for the boys and men of Leipzig's Church of St Thomas. Although weak in consonants, thereby diminishing the rhythmic bite of the German texts, the Palestrina Choir's vowels rang with a warm homogeneous purity.
Conductor Blanaid Murphy showed confident judgement in her choice of speeds. She did not, however, maintain suitable balances between instruments and voices, the trio of oboes in BWV 20, for instance, always threatening to drown the boys.
In the magnificent opening chorus of BWV 2, where the treble, tenor, bass and instrumental lines are interwoven with counter-melodies, Murphy gave little in the way of support to the outnumbered altos, bravely but almost inaudibly intoning the cantus firmus melody in long notes.
The opening sinfonia of BWV 174 is a re-working of the first movement of Brandenburg Concerto No.3. Unfortunately, what was therefore the afternoon's best-known music was dogged by the most problems in performance. Rough-and-ready playing and unfocused ensemble dissipated the music's familiar energy, and the two horns made their lines sound uncomfortably difficult.
Compensating for these various disappointments were the trio of soloists. Tenor John Elwes gave angst-filled expression to the horrors of eternal damnation in BWV 20. Mezzo-soprano Alison Browner sang with her customary balance of warmth and crispness, and bass Nigel Williams was as persuasive as ever, whether forbidding as God pledging to help the downtrodden in BWV 2, or gently urging the faithful in BWV 20.
Michael Dungan
