David Cheetham

It may be vast – it may be difficult – but this symphony exactly suits our festival chorus. The choir’s work at the festival had been carefully planned to lead up to this final over-the-top outburst. A lot of the vocal writing is multichoral, with soloists, boys’ choir and choruses singing together over a loud orchestra.

The writing for the soloists is very operatic, and their voices need to be operatic, but there is a tendency for them to oversing in what is actually a much smaller, more responsive building than the Met. Exceptions to this were Adrian Thompson and Alan Opie, both of whom manage to keep up their vocal colour and expressiveness.

The second movement enters a different world. All is remote and mysterious. This is quiet, slow music but the effect is not warm. The chorus takes up the cold staccato; this forest is a place of dread, whatever the words may say to the contrary. The atmosphere becomes more playful as the sopranos and boys inject a lightness of spirit, and the Jungfrau solo from tenor and seated chorus under a blissful solo violin was utterly delightful followed by a refreshingly pure Komm! from Gillian Keith.

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