RUTTER REQUIEM


Ingatestone Choral Society in the Parish Church 


21.03.10




Rutter's accessible Requiem was a good choice for this Sunday evening concert. Its catchy, organic melodies were well served by Bruce Pennick's choir: the joyful peal of the Sanctus followed by the tolling bell of the Agnus Dei. The accompanist was Martyn Heald.


As Patrick Sherring the incumbent reminded us, this is a very old church, and the Latin Office for the Dead, and the Burial Service from the Book of Common Prayer, effectively combined in Rutter's Agnus Dei, must have found many an echo in these ancient walls.


The young soprano soloist, who brought a telling purity to the Pie Jesu, was Sophie Moul.

We heard a clutch of choral fillers before the main work, including Britten's Hymn to the Virgin, Phyllis Harvey's lovely setting of George Herbert's Easter, and Howard Goodall's 23rd Psalm, better known as the theme to The Vicar of Dibley.