Reviews

THE TIMES

Residency at Spitalfields Music (24 Dec 2008)

Four Stars

Christmas Eve, and seven o'clock: as you sit snugly at home hoping, like Thomas Hardy, that the miracle of Christmas just might be so, switch on Radio 3 and give your wavering faith a boost. There's nothing like Bach for a spiritual recharge - and nothing quite like the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists to provide the electricity. They've just come to the end of the first part of their Christmas Oratorio series at the Spitalfields Winter Festival and you'll be able to feel the warmth across the airwaves. This was the Third Cantata - the one with the trumpets raising human stammering to glorious paeans of praise, and with the manger scene at its heart. I'd defy anyone to deny the Incarnation after hearing the tenor Nicholas Mulroy narrate that unique moment in powerfully persuasive recitative. The narrative core of the Cantata was framed by its emotional heart: first soprano Katharine Fuge and bass Matthew Brook, footing it featly in a triple-time dance-song of redemption; and then the alto Clare Wilkinson, in beautifully poised and sombre duet with the violin of Maya Homburger, reflecting on the need to keep faith. And, as ever, the real virtuosi of the evening were the voices of the Monteverdi Choir, conducted by John Eliot Gardiner. With the men placed at the front this time, the rolling bass lines rose up through the textures, setting the female voices into bright relief as angelic descant. In these short concerts, one motet and one Brandenburg Concerto are included. This time, we heard Der Geist hilft unser Schwach- heit, a bouncingly confident invocation to the Holy Spirit, in which choral and instrumental breathing and inflection were well-nigh indivisible. And, lest the Word should weary the spirit, Bach's Fifth Brandenburg Concerto formed the evening's centrepiece, with Rachel Beckett's flute and Homburger's violin duetting sweetly in the slow movement, and with harpsichord playing from Matthew Halls exciting enough to keep you awake all night - at least until the sleigh-bells ring.

Hilary Finch

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