The Lancaster and District Choral Society must be warmly commended for presenting music by a living British composer as its concert's main attraction at Ashton Hall.
Karl Jenkins's The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace sets words from a wide variety of sources.
Of its thirteen parts, several are strophic, and the consequent repetitions stretch the musical material here and there to its limits.
Also, the harmonic vo
cabulary could surely be more adventurous without compromising the work's integrity.
Nevertheless, it is very well crafted dramatically.
It is a master-stroke to begin the work with the choir physically marching, as to war; to set Be Merciful to Me" (Psalm 56) a capella; and to end quietly (Praise the Lord), not in loud bombast.
John Perrin conducted with great authority.
There was much to enjoy in the rest of the programme.
Mezzo Katherine Allen sang operatic excerpts by Bizet and Mozart.
Strauss's Radetzky March had the appropriate zing, persuading the audience to clap rhythmically in the traditional manner.
But in The Blue Danube, though the many rubatos were well observed, the general tempo could have been a smidgen faster. This Danube had little spring in its step.
The concert began with a spirited reading of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro Overture.
Eldon Walker
The full article contains 220 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
