KEY POINTS:
Bach featured prominently in the weekend's Italian Connection concert by the Voices and Orchestra of the Age of Discovery, which opened agreeably with a spirited Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden.
James Tibbles' keen direction ensured the balance between choir and orchestra was well maintained and, watching the singers enjoying their lines, one felt a new appreciation of the composer's contrapuntal genius.
At the other end of the evening, Bach's A major Mass was not so happy.
Choir and orchestra were generally in accord, from the lilting Kyrie eleison, graced by the dulcet tones of Sally Tibbles' and Penelope Evison's flutes, to the final, celebratory Cum Sancto Spiritu.
The Christe eleison, spun out through four solo voices, led by Robert Wiremu, yearned effectively.
However, with almost half the work accounted for by demanding solos, one might have expected some well-primed singing in these arias.
Alas, this was only provided by Jayne Tankersley, whose Qui tollis peccata mundi was ever-eloquent even when instruments occasionally wavered in focus.
Tankersley had already provided the high point of the evening with two nativity motets by obscure women composers.
These were performances that very much acknowledged the impact of the whole ensemble, with smooth recorder playing from Jessica Shaw and Mario Walsh, and James Tibbles moving adeptly from organ to harpsichord with the mood of the texts.
Tankersley is just the singer to assure Early Music the best of names. She has the presence of a Dawn Upshaw and, not afraid of gesture and movement, immediately secures a line of direct communication with her listeners.
Her voice has the colours to ponder gently on the sleeping Jesus in Maria Xaviera Peruchona's Ad gaudia, ad jubila one moment and then let fly with the unbridled ecstasy and fervour of Antonia Bembo's In braccio di Maria.
The other soloist of the evening, Sally Tibbles, evoked the most liquid-toned of goldfinches in Vivaldi's Il Gardellino with her wooden traverso flute, alongside some of the best string playing of the concert.
