Cantoris  – Motet Perpetuem, St Peter’s Church, 1 May, Reviewed by Garth Wilshere

THIS concert of religious motets covered 250 years, and was a mixed bag featuring music by Bach, Brahms, Bruckner, Poulenc and Rubbra, discretely accompanied by organ scholar Heather Easting.
The two Bach motets, cornerstones of the Baroque repertoire, stretched the choir, not helped by reverent, rather sluggish tempos, a lack of phrasing, and an indistinct sound from the tenors and basses.
The St Peter’s acoustic isn’t helpful for the lower voices, their sound was lost in the nave behind them.
The lack of forward thrust made for a boring performance, something that should never be apparent in Bach or Brahms.
The most successful performances were those of the two Bruckner motets. Here the choir produced some glorious sounds, which belied its size.
The four Poulenc Christmas Motets were bravely tackled but the choir shied from the piquant harmonies, sounding securer in the more conventional harmony.
The concert ended unwisely, with the sombre, Tenebrae Motets by Rubbra. Conductor Rachel Hyde said that she wanted the audience to be left thinking about the music and in her programme note talked about “the genius of these pieces”, sadly not revealed in this presentation.
Hyde does like to tell an audience what it should feel about the music, something I find patronising.
She should let the music speak for itself.