CHOROS at Conway Hall 8 February 2004

Amateur, semi-professional, professional; in choral music, a rich vein of British musical life, the boundaries are blurred and amateur competitive standards can be disconcertingly high. Choros, a chamber choir based in North Oxfordshire, performs in the South East and South Midlands. Members live such busy and varied lives that Choros is not on the competion circuit, and they assemble for the joy of singing and concert giving, generally unpaid. It describes itself as a semi-professional choir because some of the members do paid singing work from time to time; for their 'own promotion' Choros concerts, however, none of the singers gets paid.

Its commendable invitation to participate in the prestigious Sunday Evening series of the London Chamber Music Society, where strings and especially string quartets command the regulars' favour, attracted a good sized audience. Listeners were well rewarded by music, familiar and not so, impeccably prepared and sounding to great advantage in Conway Hall's bright and sympathetic acoustic. There were two notable and indeed memorable solo voices, Lorna Perry - Alto and Hugo Tucker - Tenor.

Janet Lincé is a very experienced choral conductor and her choir was supported in a few accompanied items by accomplished professionals, pianist Joan Taylor and Jenny Broome (harp). Preparation of a well judged programme of French and English music was immaculate and enhanced by Janet Lincé's introductions and by the provision of translations from the French.

High spots were a rare opportunity to hear Holst's Rig Veda choral hymns, and a splendid mock-tragic Lament for a sparrow by Rawsthorne. Britten's The Ballad of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard for the men was an effective tale of Gothic horror and remorse. Faure's treasurable little unaccompanied Madrigale was heard twice and slight uncertainties by some of the sopranos had vanished by encore time. This event whetted our appetite for a return to Ireland in April for Cork's International Festival.