Portsmouth Baroque Choir: Orlando Gibbons and his contemporaries

Portsmouth Baroque Choir, Christ Church, Chichester, July 5

If one's work is being celebrated 400 years after your death you can consider yourself a success. My chances of being read in the year 2425, whether as music writer, poet or anything else are vanishingly none but Orlando Gibbons gathered a sizeable audience this evening, even given the nearby opposition of some Palestrina, and so good for him.

Christ Church is a modern, functional church but attractively decorated in a taking shade of teal and with good acoustics. Malcolm Keeler provides useful notes in his good value programmes. A lot of people know each other from the myriad connections of the local music community. All these things help to make for an enjoyable occasion but mainly it's still surely about the music.

It was mostly Gibbons, beginning with O all true faithful hearts, Jenny Barton and Andrew Round to the fore and then Malcolm passing directing duties to organist Philip Drew in order to take the solo part in a charming This is the record of John. Philip then provided a gentle interlude on the keyboard before leading into a subdued Behold, I bring you glad tidings. The first guest composer was John Amner in whose O ye little flock sopranos Jane Hoskins and Karen Phillips led a richly layered chorus.

The Binsted Viols were formed for the purpose of this concert. For Binsted to be where five such fine, specialist musicians live would be too much of a coincidence so I don't suppose they all do but their account of In Nomine No. 1 was dangerously hypnotic with its soft strains through which to escape ongoing worldly horrors. It was then the full choir sound of John Bull before local 'bad boy', Thomas Weelkes, ended the first half with a rousing, spirited Hosanna to the Son of David.

William Byrd was the big name brought on to open the second half, something like Rod Stewart bringing Ronnie Wood on at Glastonbury and Christ rising again from the dead benefitted from the graceful combination of Jane Hoskins and Julia Spurgeon.

'Who by his death has destroyed death' is a memorable line from We praise thee, O Father before I found myself composing my own to the Fantasy No. 3 by Thomas Ford,

As it doth hang in the sweet summer air. 

One never knows where one's next poem is coming from, or if it will come at all.

It might have been said, and said here, previously that the sopranos are gladly Portsmouth Baroque's main strength but it was less in evidence this evening, not to their detriment but to the credit of the lower parts, in such a piece as O God, the King of Glory. And while my internet research finds that the Salvation Army was founded in 1865 there were surely pre-echoes of their vitality in the celebratory rhythms of O clap your hands together.

Binsted Viols played in hymn-like unison a Pavan & Galliard by Anthony Holborne before Andrew's counter-tenor ornaments embellished See, see the world is incarnate and to finish, by way of a programmed encore, there was The Silver Swan, a big hit of its day familiar from its final observation that,

More geese than swans now live, more fools than wise,

in which the only comfort is to realize that it was ever thus.  

That was a well-planned programme moving through subtle changes of mood, tempo and instrumentation. All credit, in no particular order, to absolutely everybody who was involved in it.