Rochdale Music Society Concert

Blossom Street Singers

'My spirit sang all day' (set to music by Gerald Finzi) were the opening words of a splendid concert in which two centuries of the English choral tradition were celebrated with examples of works exhibiting a rich variety of style and technique.

Some of these were already well known, others deserve to be so, and especially following such an attractive presentation as was given by the Blossom Street Singers.

This group of eight singers, under the direction of founder Hilary Campbell who introduced the several sections of the programme, was quite able to fill the auditorium of Heywood Civic Centre with stylish, nuanced sounds that pleased the heart and mind alike and reminded us that England has a tremendous amount to offer the musical world – quite other than in the field of ‘pop’ - when it comes to exercising the vocal chords.

Finzi, Sullivan, Pearsall, Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Ireland and Moeran, all of whose music was represented in the programme, were composers whose art was pre-eminently vocal in the sense that even their most complex orchestral works sprang from an imagination fired by their ability to sing their thoughts and feelings.

As the Blossom Street Singers demonstrated, words that may seem unpromising on the page can take on considerable depth of meaning when set to music by such composers and interpreted with such feeling and technical accomplishment.

The next concert in the RMS 2012-13 series will be given by the Absolution Saxophone Quartet on Sunday, 21 October at 3.00pm in Heywood Civic Centre.