Cwmbran Baroque Singers, St Gabriel's Church, Cwmbran (From South Wales Argus)

Cwmbran Baroque Singers, St Gabriel's Church, Cwmbran

4:22pm Monday 22nd March 2010

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A treasure of choral music written in an accessible style yet with contemporary resonances is waiting to be plundered by amateur choirs.

Much of it is living American, represented in terms of popularity by the older generation's Morten Lauridsen and the younger one's Eric Whitacre, both of whom make their challenges manageable.

Cwmbran Baroque Singers have never let the musical epoch enshrined in their name restrict their programming, often leaning on the 20th century for works that show their flexibility.

So the heaviest investment in this Passiontide concert, in terms of single items, was Lauridsen's Lux Aeterna, a composition whose simplicity - a contrapuntal texture derived from canon and a setting of sacred Latin texts - is deceptive and slow to resolve.

The choir took control of its long, undulating flow and conductor Alan Moore was ever aware of the Welsh Sinfonia's important role in ensuring its colours were also illuminating. Not least of the choir's exertions was in the central unaccompanied motet, a free-standing guise already assumed with poise in Lauridsen’s Ave Maria - shorter but again meditative.

There was deliciously intertwining singing from Anne Price Jones and Alyson Jones in Haydn’s Missa Brevis in F, almost a choral concertante for two sopranos, and Alyson’s soaring line in Bruch’s rarely-heard Jubilate, Amen, literally ended the programme on a secure high note.

For trenchant choral singing there was also Vivaldi’s Credo and Haydn’s more inventive Responsoria de venerabili Sacramento, their variety of tempo contributing to the evening’s interest.

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