THE FARRANT SINGERS, ST MARTIN'S CHURCH
“BLESSED Cecilia appear in visions to all musicians.”
So sang the Farrant Singers in Benjamin Britten’s Hymn to St Cecilia the patron saint of musicians.
The Farrants caught Britten’s distinctive idiom; fast and intricate tonguetwisting singing combined with expansive choral sonorities, directed by Andrew Mackay.
Floating above the mix was the crystal-clear confident voice of 15-year-old soprano soloist Anita Montserrat, in her first professional engagement since leaving Salisbury Cathedral Choir last year.
In the organ loft, Timothy Hone extracted an impressive range of tone-colours from the church’s ageing yet sonorous instrument in his solo performance of Duruflé’s Variations sur ‘Veni Creator’, and in his assured accompaniment of Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem.
Anita Montserrat’s Pie Jesu was spell-binding.
While departing in a sombre mood, many of the audience would have been enthusing at the birth of a new career.
STUART ROBINSON
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