Review - The Capella Singers (From Stroud News and Journal)

Review - The Capella Singers

The Cappella Singers & Sunnyside Brass The Church of the Immaculate Conception, Beeches Green Saturday, October 16

THE CAPPELLA Singers and the Sunnyside Brass ensemble gave a concert on behalf of the Immaculate Conception restoration appeal earlier this month.

The singers, under musical director Phillip Colls, fully exploited the marvellous acoustics, especially in music for double choir - the sparkling 'Gloria' from the Mass Missa Vinum Bonum by Orlando Lassus, which opened the concert, and Benjamin Britten's Hymn to the Virgin.

In Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense, with women's voices spread out in six groups and three groups of men, the effort of the music travelling across the choir was quite magical. In Charles Wood's Hail Gladdening Light the choir produced a truly wonderful sound with which to end the first half of the programme.

The choir also demonstrated its ability to sing sensitively in combination with solo voices, notably in The Blue Bird, beautifully sung by Jonquil Dodd, and in Hoagy Charmichael's Heart and Soul, with soloist Geoff March, which brought this most varied and excellent programme to an end.

Sunnyside Brass clearly also enjoyed the acoustic and the occasion, and performed a selection of music ranging from the Renaissance to a rich and warm Notturno of Rimsky-Korsakov. The group played beautifully, to the delight of the large audience.

This is not the first time that the Cappella Singers and Sunnyside Brass have shared a concert, and it's a winning combination, making from a most enjoyable and diverse evening.