NCT Festival Chorus and Concert Orchestra

Albert Hall
7 February 2009
by Peter Palmer

He wanted, Vaughan Williams said, to get up and embrace everybody, and then get drunk. Hearing a rare performance of Holst's The Hymn of Jesus, dedicated to Vaughan Williams, didn't have quite that effect on the Albert Hall audience.

It was, though, an intensely characterful performance under the baton of guest conductor James Lowe, with moments prophetic of Tippett. The main double choir and a female chorus from Nottingham Youth Chamber Choir combined with the Choral Trust concert orchestra, sometimes to brilliant effect.

Vaughan Williams's Five Mystical Songs launched the evening. With atmospheric support from the large choir, David Stout's baritone lent majesty to George Herbert's words. The closing hymn had a splendid zip.

Led by Emma Wragg, the Rivoli String Quartet formed an integral part of the orchestra. They played the solo parts in Elgar's lyrical Introduction and Allegro, and on their own they showed how they won the Prix Ravel with a warmly received account of Ravel's Quartet in F. Verses by Walt Whitman provided the choral finale: Vaughan Williams's rousing Toward the Unknown Region. An innovative concert, brought off with aplomb