THOMAS HARDYE SINGERS
St Mary’s Church
ON an evening when fireworks were lighting up the sky outside, the audience indoors at this classical concert were also enjoying plenty of explosive and exhilarating moments in a programme that at times just about sent us all into musical orbit.
Always a highlight of the arts year for Dorchester, a visit of Imperial College Orchestra can be guaranteed to bring remarkable skills, excitement and dedication to their works which in turn brought new levels of expertise to the local singing group and Middle School singers from St Mary’s Puddletown, St Osmonds and Dorchester .
Under the baton of Peter Oakes and Richard Dickins, the concert is also important in that it gives the opportunity for local young musicians to perform in the orchestra with experienced players and they certainly did not disappoint.
A programme that started off with John Rutter’s Requiem set the pace for wonderfully melodic and sensitive phrasing which continued with Verdi’s overture for The Force of Destiny and for Leonard Bernstein’s less well known Chichester Psalms, an appropriate choice on the eve of Remembrance Day.
The lively Polovtsian Dances by Borodin rounded off an evening in which the voices of the choral singers blended beautifully with the orchestra in a resounding concert of professional class that it was a privilege to attend.
The singers will be performing again on Thursday 17th December for a carol service at St Peter’s Church, Dorchester.
MARION COX
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