Nottingham Festival Chorus & Concert Orchestra |Gounod St Cecilia Mass and Bizet Te deum

Albert Hall, Nottingham
Saturday 6th February 2010
By Peter Palmer

Bizet and Gounod needed a romantic orchestra to help realise their visions, and they found it in French opera.
   But the flair for vocal writing that these two composers also displayed in sacred pieces should not be forgotten, to judge by Music For Everyone's weekend concert under Angela Kay's inspirational guidance.
   A youthful setting of the Te Deum text was Bizet's only religious work. It treated the central theme of thanksgiving with a variety and a sensitivity to words that were strikingly captured by the large Festival Chorus.
   Soloists Rebecca Goulden and Harry Nicoll combined radiance and charm, the orchestral ensemble providing matching support.
   Berlioz's Rakoczy March launched the evening with a swagger. In Ravel's Pavane pour une Infante Défunte, the Nottingham Concert Orchestra created a mood of nostalgic reflection.
   David Stout added his deep baritone to Gounod's St Cecilia Mass, whose solo parts are integrated within a rich overall fabric. We could enjoy the lilting Sanctus as much as Gounod evidently did, bringing the tune back one final time on the flute.
   Here were two neglected choral scores made to sound anything but museum pieces. An evening of sumptuous delights and rewards.