Concert Review by Colin Leakey, as submitted to the Lincoln Echo.
For very many serious musicians J.S Bach's B Minor Mass is rated the most profound and magnificent of all choral works. To a conductor it poses a huge challenge. As Roddis' programme notes put it, taking up the challenge requires " summoning up courage and skill….. to give voice to this tremendous mystery". This performance was a triumph for him and his performers, which worthily marked a twenty-fifth anniversary year of association among many of these who have met annually together to make music since Roddis' days as a student at Exeter University. But it does much more. We have come, in Lincolnshire, to know Richard Roddis already as an outstanding tenor and as a conductor of a small consort of singers. This B minor Mass could confirm his ascendancy into the top flight of today's English conductors. This was the third of four performances. I hope that the BBC or some other will record the fourth performance in Crediton, Devon on May 29th. The music of course is quite wonderful and a short review is no place to have to try to point this out. The chorus was uniformly attentive, exquisitely flexible in dynamics and clear in diction. The solo voices, Kate Semmens soprano; William Purefoy, counter tenor; Mark Wilde, tenor; and Robert Clarke , bass were all of the highest calibre. The orchestra, all playing on Baroque-style instruments, and many still formally students, were tutored and led by Nicolette Moonen. The demanding obliggato instrumental performances, particularly by the flutes Soile Pyulkonnen and Jane Mitchell and the un-valved Hunting Horn of Ursular Monberg in the famous "Quoniam" were particularly impressive. One could go on!
This was a totally satisfying interpretation and performance of a very great work.
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Author: Paul A. Ellis