British Snapshots, Kokoro's celebration of Hugh Wood's 75th birthday, compressed past and present musical styles under the direction of Mark Forkgen.
Jonathan Harvey's Come Holy Ghost (Bishop J Cosin's text) harks back to plainchant. Building the multipart chorus in stages until random lines achieved a magnificent climax.
Geoffrey Poole's sophisticated sounds for Carved in Stone attempted to reflect some of the mysteries of ancient edifices in natural and primitive structures.
A first performance of Hugh Wood's Tenebrae setting Geoffrey Hill's eponymous, poignant poem drew further superb singing in this well crafted work.
Harrison Birtwistle's strophically formed Dinah and Nick's Love Song produced a remarkable cohesion of harp and the random phrases of cor anglais, bassoon and oboe making a fascinating aural blend. A first performance of Stephen Pratt's The Miraculous Mandolin proved an eminently listenable and resourceful mixture of Bartokian piquancy and surreptitious humour.
Mike Marsh
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