Performance: Viva Voce

Concert Chamber

Review: Tara Werner

In their typically laconic manner Viva Voce like to present thematic programmes with a slight twist.

This time the focus was on travel, with a round-the-world ticket of music from destinations as far flung as San Francisco, Austria, Poland and Ireland.

Since many of the musical connections were rather loose and in essence just an excuse to combine a number of disparate elements, last Sunday's concert, subtitled Place Settings, seemed somewhat forced and contrived.

Such cross-over programmes, mixing highbrow with popular material, can work but on this occasion it fell flat, coming across as a bit of a muddle, despite conductor John Rosser's witty introductions.

That is not to say that the quality of performance suffered.

Viva Voce's vocal ability cannot be doubted, and this mainly a cappella group continue to impress.

Given the attempt at a more relaxed presentation style, ironically it was the more demanding contrapuntal works that were more successful than the more straightforward numbers such as Tuxedo Junction or I left my Heart in San Francisco.

Take the fluent interpretation of Palestrina's Surge, Illuminare, and Super flumina, both requiring double choir and an ear for accurate counterpoint.

And two of the English composer Thomas Weelkes' highly chromatic madrigals were sung with care.

Most expressive of all was a haunting rendition of Henryk Gorecki's A ta nasza, a moving arrangement of a Polish folksong.

In stark contrast to the plaintive Gorecki was Anthony Ritchie's The Charge of Parihaka, based on a highly satirical poem by Jessie Mackay paraphrasing the Charge of the Light Brigade.

Here Ritchie's staccato and pointed setting reinforced the words beautifully.

As for the rest of the programme, the choir seemed strangely ill at ease with numbers such as Billy Joel's State of Mind and the traditional Banks of the Ohio, although the latter's final humorous verses made a light-hearted finish to the programme.