The Wykehamist
orchestra having to take on much of the finer detail and counterpoint themselves, the largest of the choral moments were, indeed, nothing short of grand and glorious— look no further than the resonating six-part harmonies of the Sanctus for a blazing example of this. It would, moreover, be remiss of me not to mention the incredible quality of the soloists. Hugh Cutting, the counter tenor, stood out in particular for his effortless projection of a remarkably well-shaped quality; his first solo entry in‘ Qui sedes’ of the Gloria was accompanied by an audible gasp from the audience. A bit of investigative listening into his latest album— Refound, released by Linn in October last year, which includes a perversely gleeful interpretation of Tom Lehrer’ s Poisoning Pigeons in the Park no doubt inspired by OT’ s
( CoRo, 11-24) performance at the Staff Revue a handful of years ago— confirms my suspicions; Cutting is certainly one to look out for!
Congratulations to SRB, DM, DHU, the Oxford Bach Soloists, the various choirs and all the very many others involved in this spectacular outing to the Cathedral. No matter the student body’ s opinions of the Choral Society, it is hard to deny that their annual concert is simply one of the most monumental events of the College’ s musical year. Their venture into period performance has certainly been a worthwhile one; such opportunities prove crucial in demystifying a tradition continually straw-manned by so many. For maybe, just maybe, all this HIP stuff may not be totally evil after all?
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