Rutter’s Magnificat, Britten’s St Nicholas

16 November 2019

This SMS concert featured two very appropriate works as we approach Advent. John Rutter’s Magnificat sets the song of Mary as told in St Luke’s Gospel and for centuries an integral part of Christian Services. In his uplifting work Rutter adds other texts to the Latin in which Mary praises the Lord as she realises she is to be the mother of Jesus. The soprano soloist representing Mary was Amy Carson, one of the first girl choristers of Salisbury Cathedral and now a professional singer with a lovely voice.

Benjamin Britten’s cantata St Nicolas celebrates the man who was a Bishop and survived hardship and persecution, becoming a byword for generous caring – and evolution into the figure of Santa Claus. Despite illness affecting their numbers, as in the Rutter, SMS sang gloriously, with Cathedral choristers in fine solo and choral support under David Hall’s baton with tenor Nicholas Hawker lyrically voicing the songs of the saint. Chelsea Opera Group Orchestra, augmented by the piano duet of Peter Grove and Alistair Watson, played with subtlety and power. The appreciative audience readily joined with the musical forces in the two hymns Britten included.

John Cox
Reviewer