Portsmouth Cathedral Choral Scholars at Lunchtime Live!

Portsmouth Cathedral Choral Scholars, Portsmouth Cathedral, March 20

Portsmouth Cathedral's Early Music Festival got off to a punctual start, 1.10pm being early enough. It's a vague term that invites scrutiny. We have 'Renaissance', 'Pre-Renaissance' and 'Baroque' which some might prefer but it's better we attend to the music and not the loose categories of it.

The five Choral Scholars began in an arrangement of Happy is the people that Theo Almond had had a hand in, a gentle introduction before their many and various talents were gradually revealed.

Their Lamentations of Jeremiah I by Tallis being next up meant that my highlight came up quickly, its exquisite exposition of sorrowful progress being one of the rich repertoire of music lamenting the C6thBC siege of Jerusalem - I think- with Kim Chin leading the engaging blend of voices as counter-tenor.

But there was plenty more to admire with Theo decorative over Kim's dainty pipe organ in a fragment of the Bach Magnificat and Jimmy Thomson, bass, in the flighty love poem, Come again by John Dowland, this time with harpsichord accompaniment.

But Kim plays the recorder, too, as he did most plaintively over a walking harpsichord continuo in the Larghetto from Handel's Sonata HWV 360 then it transpired that Jimmy Thomson played violin as well as being one of two fine basses with Noah Toogood and Theo sang the Agnus Dei from Bach's B minor Mass, filling the acoustic of another gratifyingly packed St. Thomas's Chapel with Kim back on organ.

Two pieces from Messiah demonstrated immaculate clarity from Joel Fernandez and authoritative 'great light' from Noah and if, by any chance, my notes fitted all the right names to the roles they took at one time or another then my performance rates as one of my better ones while not being quite as elegant to witness.

As a finale, Kim made his way to the big cathedral organ for the finale, Sweelinck's Fantasia Cromatica, SwWV 258 which puts layer on layer in an orderly procession until raising its banner high to finish.

These were 'gap year' students. We didn't have 'gap years' in my day, we were glad enough to get to university on a grant, but these scholars are clearly making excellent use of their time, busy busy as it sounds like they are. You wouldn't want to be otherwise. I wasn't. 

We only had to wait half an hour until a most entertaining and illuminating talk by Andrew Gant based on his book, The Making of Handel's Messiah, I had an hour or so over the road in The Dolphin, surely the most civilized pub in Portsmouth, and I was down to Portsmouth Harbour for the train to Petersfield and an evening to remember with their orchestra. I'm very glad there are still such days as these.