Singing with pride and passion

Oldham Choral Society: JS Bach’s St Matthew Passion, Albion Church, Ashton.

The future of Oldham’s amateur classical music is in safe hands — at least if groups such as Oldham Choral Society continue to deliver performances like Bach’s “St Matthew Passion” last Sunday.

The choir, in its 125th Anniversary year, put the lie to the view that easy access, on the web or radio, to the world’s greatest musicians makes us less tolerant of music that is short of perfect.

The reception given to Oldham Choral Society in the packed Albion Church, was emphatically positive response to the musical feat pulled off by musical director Nigel Wilkinson.

From the opening section, helped out by a small choir of Hulme Grammar School’s boy trebles, the choir and the on-form East Lancashire Sinfonia met the challenges head-on, of one of Bach’s biggest and best loved choral works.

As usual the choir was supported by excellent soloists — one of the reasons that their concerts are good value for money.

Chief among them on this occasion was the sweet-voiced tenor Huw Rhys-Davies whose narration as “The Evangelist” held the audience, at times, silently spellbound.

It would be easy to pick holes in the detail: the odd minor tuning error in the orchestra or the fuller chorale sections where tenors and basses occasionally lacked strength, but that would be to do an injustice.

The production proved that technical perfection is not all — this was good classical music in a beautiful venue for far less money, and with more passion than some classier city venues.

You can hear Oldham Choral Society sing Handel’s Messiah at the new Middleton Arena on Sunday June 7.

Visit the OCS website for more details at www.old hamchoral.org.uk