The spring concert of the Wokingham Choral Society was performed in the Great Hall of the University of Reading on Saturday, March 18, before a rapt audience.
The ensemble was conducted by the society’s new musical director, Cathal Garvey, who teaches conducting at the Royal Academy of Music and performs as a violinist.
The concert included two greatly loved works, Monteverdi’s Beatus Vir, with its repeated title words and Vivaldi’s Gloria, its opening bearing the unmistakeable idiom of the Four Seasons.
The first half of the concert was devoted to a far less known but instantly appealing work, Stabat Mater by Pergolesi, who died tragically at the age of 26.
The choir sang with dynamic poise, ably supported by their accompanist George de Voil playing the Chamber Organ and continuo, the Hampstead Chamber orchestra and two sensitive soloists, soprano Charlotte Shaw and mezzo Cathy Bell.
They all treated the audience to a memorable evening.
Wokingham Choral Society’s next concert will be in All Saints Church, Wokingham on Saturday, June 17, and will be an evening of favourite opera and musical choruses.
R J Eaglen
