Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle

Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle is a peculiar work being, as conductor Patrick Larley told us, neither short nor solemn. Composed when he was 70, decades after ceasing to write operas, it does not plumb the emotional depths of Mozart or Verdi’s sacred works but contains music of great melodic charm and pathos. Here it was performed in its original form for chorus and four solo singers accompanied by piano and harmonium (Darren Hogg). Rossini wanted a chorus of eight and here we had about ten times that number but Larley balanced the forces well.
The chorus was in good voice, tender and restrained in the valedictory Agnus Dei, but packing a vocal punch when required as in “Amen” of the Cum Sancto Spiritu.
The soprano Megan Llewellyn Dorke was outstanding in her solo items, in firm and steady voice, engaged with the text, and always sounded convincing.
She was well supported by mezzo Jennifer Westwood in the Qui Tollis duet. In the tenor solo Domine Deus Martin Hindmarsh was raw and strained when required to sing high and loud while Richard Striven’s bass sounded tremulous rather than authoritative.
Pianist Kevin Gill was admirable as a constantly attentive yet self-effacing accompanist.

(Norman Stinchcombe, Birmingham Post Mar 18 2010)

Handel's Israel in Egypt at Town Hall, Birmingham

....... The BFCS, under their music director Patrick Larley, ... must be commended for their
honest endeavour, untiring effort and ability to get to grips with some very demanding vocal work. At their best,
as in I Will Exalt Him and the extended finale The Lord Shall Reign For Ever and Ever, they produced a truly
rousing sound........

(Norman Stinchcombe, Birmingham Post Oct 27 2009)

Audience marks the death of composer
Review: Birmingham Festival Choral Society, The Creation: Haydn, at Malvern Priory

A large and most appreciative audience were in Malvern Priory to hear Birmingham Festival Choral Society perform Haydn’s The Creation, marking the bi-centenary of the composer’s death. Conductor Patrick Larley drew a meaningful and cohesive interpretation from the large chorus which sang with enthusiasm and accuracy from the quiet beginning of The Spirit of God.

An excellent blend was produced in A new created world, when sopranos were exemplary and we heard the chorus full-blooded in The heavens are telling. A good attack set the chorus off for some outstanding singing in Achieved is the glorious work and by contrast, the subdued chorus augmented Adam and Eve in words of For ever blessed. The last chorus Sing the Lord was sung with verve, Haydn’s fugal writing affirming the excitement and wonder of The Creation.

The trio of soloists were a considerable asset: soprano Gwawr Edwards’ clear voice scaled heights and acrobatic runs with brilliance; tenor Stephen Newlove, after initial nerves, produced some lovely cantabile singing and Adrian Blakeley (bass), proved to be a compelling artist whose resounding voice and distinctive enunciation expressed the words superbly.

Kevin Gill, organist, accompanied and used the Priory organ to maximum effect delivering many passages evocative of the text.

(Jill Hopkins, Malvern Gazette)

English Haydn Festival 200th Anniversary Concert, St Leonards' Church, Bridgnorth
" .. the 200th Anniversary Concert [of Haydn's birth] was celebrated with what is widely regarded as his most famous work, The Creation.

The English Haydn Orchestra was joined by the Birmingham Festival Choral Society to present a work which has been a worldwide "smash hit". Conductor Patrick Larley brought out the best from musicians and voices setting the seal on an evening to remember.

And one to which said "thank you" to Joseph Haydn and John Reid [founder of the Haydn Festival]."

(Shirley Tart, Shrewsbury Chronicle)

My Spirit Sang All Day
...... Patrick Larley..... and BFCS gave it [Captain Noah and his Floating Zoo]their best shot ..... Part-songs by Finzi, Elgar and Larley himself were nicely shaped and enunciated ......... Britten's Choral Dances from Gloriana provided the proof that this is the sort of music BFCS members would rather spend their time on. In terms of lustre and vibrancy (replicated later in a Larley arrangement of Somewhere Over The Rainbow) their singing here outshone everything else on the programme.....

(David Hart, Birmingham Post, Jun 30 2008)

BFCS at the Town Hall
The return of Elijah and Birmingham Festival Choral Society to the Town Hall had been heralded as an event of symbolic importance and musical significance. And so it was ..... to his credit Patrick Larley did not attempt a fully historical re-creation. Apart from the English Haydn Orchestra's period instruments (natural horns and trumpets pungently in evidence....) this was a fairly standard modern interpretation, and probably much quicker than Victorian audiences would have been used to hearing. Larley's tidy beat .... resulted in some shapely and remarkably fresh-voiced singing.
Quieter choruses, such as "Blessed are the men", "He that shall endure" and a heavenly buoyant "Lift thine eyes", were lovingly crafted. At the other end of the dynamic scale flames licked fiercely around "The fire descends"; and several head of steam were built up in "Thanks be to God", the "Baal" outbursts and other dramatic highspots. A sonorous-voiced Mark Rowlinson suggested an Elijah of both authority and questing humanity, notably so in "It is enough", with its soulful cello obbligato. Soprano Elizabeth Cragg suitably beseeched with "Help me, man of God" and was lustrously affirmative in "Hear ye, Israel", while mezzo Harriet Goodwin delivered an intelligently unsentimental "O rest in the Lord." Clearest of all the soloists was tenor Jon English, who consistently let us hear all his words. Perhaps the lower than usual pitch was responsible for impeding the others' diction. Or could it be (sacrilege indeed) that our revamped Town Hall is actually not very kind to singers?
(David Hart, Birmingham Post, Apr 15 2008)

Best of Britten crackles with energy and sizzling soul
Sometimes it's easy to work out where the rehearsal time went. Britten's 1937 radio cantata The Company of Heaven is an ambitious undertaking for any amateur choir, even one as accomplished as Birmingham Festival Choral Society. Its demands are extraordinary. The work's 45-minute span encompasses spoken narrations, shouted choruses, complex choral melodramas, and A Thousand Thousand Gleaming Fires supposedly the first music Britten ever wrote for Peter Pears (Joshua Ellicott sang it here, with keen sensitivity to the colours of Emily Bronte's words).

So it was no real surprise that Haydn's Little Organ Mass seemed under-prepared. A top-heavy choral balance, and a tendency for the choir to drift flat at the ends of sustained phrases were the main failings in a performance that certainly had its good points - like a poised, radiantly sweet Benedictus from soprano Philippa Hyde - but, overall, felt merely pleasant rather than vibrant.

That all changed in the Britten. From its very first entry, the chorus seemed galvanised - there was clarity, a new dynamic range, and a crackling energy in its singing. Conductor Patrick Larley steered his forces deftly through the score's complexities of balance and texture, and the narrators, Gill Larley and Stephen Purcell, delivered their lines with dignity and expression. Britten's final chorale (set to a wondrously transfigured Old Hundredth) was sonorous and spine-tingling.

But the high-point of the evening came in Britten's setting of a passage from Revelation - spat, shouted, whispered and snarled by the men of the BFCS. It called to mind Barbirolli's famous comment during a rehearsal of Gerontius: "You're not bank clerks on a Sunday outing, you're souls sizzling in hell!" He'd have had no complaint with this lot.

(Richard Bratby, Birmingham Post, Nov 27 2007)

Meeting of Minds Makes for a Fine Evening (Handel's Messiah) - 4 Star
...a thoughtful, well-considered presentation of the oratorio from the Birmingham Festival Choral Society on Sunday....

It was fascinating to hear Mozart's woodwind contributions, written with the experience of his great final trilogy of symphonies behind him, embellishing Handel's pithy lines. The period performance English Haydn Orchestra... did sterling work, Larley directing from a well-deployed chamber organ....

[This was] an encouragingly well-filled choir, [whose] freshness of sound and smiling stage presence added value to what was an important event in BFCS history, in front of a packed house.

An attractive quartet of young soloists was headed by the persuasive soprano of Sasha Johnson Manning...
(Christopher Morley, Birmingham Post, Nov 29 2006)

Magnificat at Malvern Priory
BFCS is a choir of about 100 voices, among them an enviable contingent of gentlemen, and the singers were on splendid form for their concert. A solo voice led the choir in a Latin Plainchant of Magnificat anima mea Domini, followed by two motets by Elgar, Ave Maria and Ave Maris Stella. The latter was particularly expressive, with some exquisite quiet singing and fine intonation.
Soprano soloist Lucy Bowen soared above the choir and the organ's flute-like accompaniment of arpeggios in Stanford's Magnificat in G. The choir's final Amen was glorious as it crescendoed to a climax.
Conductor Patrick Larley's A Girl for the Blue was inspirational and beautiful. The soprano soloist floated, singing Magnificat, anima mea Domini as the unaccompanied choir converged in close-clustered harmonies. The effect was stunning, the choir magnificent in its delivery of Michael Ffinch's poem Annunciation.
Settings of The Magnificat by Herbert Howells and John Rutter completed the programme, both performed well.
Jill Hopkins, Malvern Gazette website

Peace in our time
One felt sympathy for the young Chetham's student Cordelia Williams, asked to open Birmingham Festival Choral Society's concert with Mendelssohn's First Piano Concerto. Her touch was elegant with Patrick Larley conducting the Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra perhaps anxious to get to the meat of the evening.
Which was, of course, the Tippett, selected by BFCS before Larley was appointed as new conductor of this, one of the oldest and most august choirs in the country. In this, his debut concert he exuded confidence and reassurance, necessarily so in this tricky but so rewarding oratorio.
Choral tone was thrilling and generous. Diction, as always with BFCS, was conscientiously delivered, and intonation for Tippett's tortuous lines was well maintained.
Christopher Morley, The Birmingham Post 29.11 2005

Jubilant voices raise the roof of the Priory
A British Celebration.
The jubilant voices of BFCS filled Malvern Priory with Vaughan Williams' Let all the world in every corner sing in a stirring and expressive delivery. Like as the Hart by Herbert Howells was a perfect contrast as the chorus and organ met in a texture of reflective and subtle harmonies. Kevin Gill was superb in Elgar's Organ Sonata in G major. He began in triumph before moving on in quieter fashion, flowing constantly and employing the flute stop often. Eventually, he returned rejoicing in a mighty, pedalled finish. The chorus's Elgar choice Give unto the Lord (Psalm 29) was effective in its imitation and emphasis on words.
Most beautiful was Peter Maxwell Davis's tribute to the birth of a child in Rackwick, Orkney (the first for 32 years). Lullabye for Lucy was sung unaccompanied, a rare gem of gentle beauty. Also performed was Maxwell Davis's recently commissioned set of seven songs The Kestrel Road, each one evocative of Orcadian features.
Closing as the concert began, with Vaughan Williams, the roof of the Priory was raised in exultation for O Clap Your Hands as the organ 'sounded the trumpet' and the chorus 'sang praises unto our King'.
This concert was the last for conductor Anthony Bradbury as MD.
Jill Hopkins (The Worcester Evening News, 27th June 2005)

Choir gives spring to Haydn.
Haydn said that when he thought of God, he felt so happy that he would set even a Miserere to cheerful music.
That came to mind in the Birmingham Festival Choral Society's performance of Haydn's Harmoniemesse, as the superbly focussed voices of the chorus somehow expressed both the meaning of the word and Haydn's optimism, while a flute fluttered poignantly about. Such details abounded in a performance that combined symphonic sweep with an irresistible sense of enjoyment.
As Haydn raced onwards the chorus all but swung as they attacked the difficult Et vitam fugue with undisguised relish.
At the centre of all this was conductor Anthony Bradbury, in his final Birmingham concert with the BFCS.
His unfussy manner could not conceal his mastery of this 50-minute work's structure, without which the fun would have gone for nothing.
As it was, the pleasure that he and his performers took in this life-enhancing music communicated itself unmistakably.
Another mass-setting followed after the interval - though anything less like Haydn than Mozart's C minor Mass would be hard to imagine. It's a gothic cathedral in music, the chorus providing the pillars in massive Bach-inspired movements.
Here, they created a new sound world; basses dark and sonorous, the women sustaining their lines in radiant voice, and tenors launching their fugal entries with heroic vigour.
In the intervening numbers, the starry team of soloists came into its own. Sopranos Rachel Nicholls and Gillian Webster made a perfectly contrasted pair, Nicholls poised and gloriously rich of sound in the pastoral Et Incarnatus.
The male soloists' briefer contributions were characterful and sweet toned. But throughout the whole evening, soloists, conductor, orchestra and chorus felt like part of one ensemble.
Richard Bratby (The Birmingham Post, 22nd March 2005)

Full of telling Contrasts.
Almost a hundred years to the day, an illustrious visitor arrived to conduct the première of his Requiem in the Town Hall. Popular Dvorák was no stranger to our city, composing his new work for concert presentation rather than for liturgical use. With Elgar in the orchestra and Cardinal Newman in the audience the Birmingham Festival Chorus was in good company for their part in the success of that evening.
Afterwards Dvorák noted, "…some of the papers say that no composer has previously gained such a success in Birmingham". So it was with a ghostly feeling of déjà vu that we listened to the successors in the present choir giving their fine interpretation in the more sacred surroundings of the beautiful Oratory.
Difficult acoustic notwithstanding, conductor Anthony Bradbury created a lovely performance full of telling contrasts. Here is a chorus well versed in the meaning of the words, shaping the text with clarity and faultless intonation - particularly in unaccompanied sections, and a sense of high drama offsetting tender gentleness. The Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra rose to the occasion with superb woodwind and splendid brass. An impressive sound throughout
Maggie Cotton (The Birmingham Post, 22nd November 2004)

Patterson's proud legacy.
What was originally intended as a 70th birthday celebration became instead Jeremy Patterson's final concert as Music Director of Birmingham Festival Choral Society. His guidance and musical vision over 35 years - fifteen premières, numerous commissions and a chorus almost trebled in size are achievements enough - will be sorely missed. During the interval a choir member also mentioned his inspirational leadership and kindness, qualities no choral conductor can do without.
One couldn't help wondering if, had he taken the decision to quit earlier, Patterson might have chosen something different for his swansong. Elgar's sublime The Music Makers actually filled the bill perfectly, but George Dyson's Nebuchadnezzar seemed a rum choice. It was composed in the year of Patterson's birth, hence its outing here.
The Music Makers was infinitely more rewarding, gloriously though occasionally too loudly played, and affectionately sung by the chorus. No matter that tempi often exceeded Elgar's metronome markings by several notches; this was a reading of considerable sweep and tonal purity. Passages with the soloist (Jean Rigby, understanding and radiantly plangent as always) were rousingly uplifting, while the sensitively nuanced "dreaming and singing" section demonstrated just how good BFCS has become under Jeremy Patterson's leadership. A proud legacy indeed.
David Hart (The Birmingham Post, 5th July 2004)

Circlesong by Bob Chilcott - World Première
Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham
Throughout its long history Birmingham Festival Choral Society has given many world premières, but none quite like its latest, the fifteenth under Jeremy Patterson's directorship. Circlesong is, as they say, something else, namely a well-crafted substantial work sure to be a big hit.
As a former member of The King's Singers and whiz-kid arranger Bob Chilcott knows all about writing effectively for voices, and this setting of Native American poems evocatively and attractively expresses the spirit of simple humanity as a cycle of birth, death and regeneration.
Chilcott's new-age sentiments are conveyed through a colourful lingua franca of musical styles, from pop style melodies and modern part-songs with squishy harmonies, to up-beat rhythms and even some pseudo-ethnic, freeform chanting.
There's nothing in it to alarm or confuse, and it's a bit tinkly and banal in places, but as music of the moment Circlesong has undeniable appeal. Saturday's audience loved it (my, how they cheered) and it was great to see the ABH packed out for a change.
In performance terms there was much to praise - effulgent, secure and expressive singing from BFCS, who sounded positively energised and inspired by the intoxicating presence of the City of Birmingham Young Voices, a choir which for youthful enthusiasm and natural musicianship has nothing to beat it. Fine support, too, from pianists Kevin Gill and Julian Wilkins, and the super BackBeat Percussion Quartet.
David Hart (The Birmingham Post, 5th April 2004)

The Destiny of Life
Last Sunday Birmingham Festival Choral Society performed one of the English repertoire's most inward masterpieces. Gerald Finzi's achingly nostalgic Intimations of Immortality, setting the major part of Wordsworth's Recollections of Early Childhood, shows a composer who is essentially a miniaturist grappling with an extended canvas, and how successfully he manages it. Underpinning his natural response to the speech-patterns of his text is an almost symphonic fabric of intertwining motifs, clearly identifiable, and combining in contrapuntal contours which reach back centuries to the skills of Tudor composers.
The whole effect is one of emotion spontaneously recollected, and the response of BFCS to this rewarding work was wholehearted and generous.
Wordsworth's words emerged with clarity of both diction and thought, tone was rounded and secure, and a masterstroke came at the end with the final lines sung from memory, books down; a highly moving moment. Mark Wilde was the eloquent tenor soloist, and Anthony Bradbury conducted with unfussy precision, confident in the capabilities of the excellent Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra who were fearless in Finzi's frequent syncopations.
The BPO gave us a taut, sonorous Brahms Tragic Overture under Jeremy Patterson, who also sculpted a warm, persuasive account of the composer's Schicksalslied, delivered with a stunning dynamic delicacy.
Christopher Morley (The Birmingham Post, 2nd December 2003)

BFCS Tour to Bruges and Holland:
Read the special review

BFCS in Tewkesbury Abbey
Though certainly a beautiful building in a lovely location, Tewkesbury Abbey does present certain problems as a performing venue.
It is an immense tribute to the work which BFCS and their two conductors, Jeremy Patterson and Anthony Bradbury, put in that the diction and dynamics still managed to communicate so strongly.
The programme, "Celebration Music for Great Occasions", a slightly curtailed version of that which the choir will be taking to Belgium and the Netherlands later this month, was dedicated to BFCS accompanist Louise Andrews, who died so tragically young in June.
Most successful here was Finzi's delectable Magnificat, its innocent freshness beautifully conveyed, its organ accompaniment judiciously, lightly balanced by Kevin Gill.
Christopher Morley (The Birmingham Post, 7th July 2003)

An Easter Thanksgiving
The darling of Queen Victoria's court, Mendelssohn, came to the Town Hall to conduct his new Hymn of Praise at the Triennial Music Festival, three years before the Birmingham Festival Choral Society was established in 1843. Formed to perform "modern, contemporary music", this choir's fine tradition continues to this day
Entitled An Easter Thanksgiving, the evening began in sprightly fashion with associate conductor Anthony Bradbury bringing forth lovely well-crafted phrasing from the chorus in Haydn's Te Deum.
The BFCS orchestra was surely a delight for conductor Jeremy Patterson, sparkling strings, well-balanced wind, supportive brass and timpani. However, in spite of the choir's ratio of two to one in favour of women, control and sensitivity overcame any potential problems in beautifully sung unaccompanied passages.
Maggie Cotton (The Birmingham Post, 17th April 2003)

In Praise of Music.
Parry's splendid Blest Pair of Sirens achieved a generous-hearted, full-throated performance from a BFCS in fine fettle and voice. Phrasing was supple and chording was firm.
Christopher Morley(The Birmingham Post, 2nd December 2002)

Anthony Bradbury's first half was not only relaxed but deliciously inspiring.
The second half performance of the Ode to Saint Cecilia was one of the most exhilarating of a work of mine that I have ever heard. Jeremy Patterson put his heart & soul into a highly accurate & totally committed interpretation.
Elis Pehkonen, Composer of Ode to Saint Cecilia, 5th December 2002

Summer Thyme in Malvern
In the serene setting of Malvern Priory a capacity audience - to the extent that programmes ran out - listened with obvious pleasure to the BFCS, with the Regency Sinfonia, leader Simon Chalk, an ensemble of professional instrumentalists drawn from some of our top class orchestras. Anthony Bradbury and Jeremy Patterson shared the conducting.
Monteverdi's Beatus Vir caused momentary concern with some tentative entries in the initial stages, but confidence was soon established.
Three motets by Mozart were impeccably tuned and given thoughtful expression. The well-known Ave verum, with a refined string accompaniment, was sung with impressive, long flowing phrases, Sancta Maria, Mater Dei was poised finely, the choir's easy tone and balance culminating in the closing Amen where the harmonic line of the gentlemen was decorated delicately by the ladies, more florid one.
Finzi's Magnificat was the high point of this concert.
Following a superb orchestral introduction, the choir sang with acute sensitivity, enunciating the words clearly and breathing life into the composer's wonderful harmonies and lyrical lines. The power and beauty of the men's singing when alone, the soaring high sopranos, the meaningful repetition of 'Blessed', and further on of 'for ever', all contributed in detail, to making this a stirring and worthy interpretation.
Solo woodwind performers and a harp enhanced John Rutter's The Sprig of Thyme, a charming collection of folk song arrangements, in which the choir continued to sing with excellent tone quality and impeccable pitch.
The closing piece, Faure's Cantique de Jean Racine, using Rutter's exquisite accompaniment of strings and harp, was delivered with distinction, flowing easily and with perfectly suited dynamics, including exemplary pianissimo singing.
Jill Hopkins (Malvern Gazette, 5th July 2002.)

Masterworks of the 1940s
There was power, discipline (eyes regularly raised to Anthony Bradbury’s meticulous beat) and some pleasing singing [in Duruflé’s Requiem].
For Kodály’s wartime Missa Brevis Jeremy Patterson’s exuberant and forceful direction eliciting energy, confidence and full engagement with emotional content. This saw off technical challenges (including some very high soprano lines) and delivered detail and contrast, from the simple solemnity of the Kyrie, through a robust Gloria and sweet Qui Tollis to the careful articulation and diction of the Credo.
Clare Mackney
The Birmingham Post, 25th March 2002

Raising those heavenly voices
Billing a concert as A Joyous Trumpeting and presenting three celebratory works for voices and brass represents a neat bit of programming by Birmingham Festival Choral Society, especially as all three also honour its tradition of performing living British composers.
Bob Chilcott's Jubilate [composed] specifically for chamber choir did not always translate well to BFCS's larger forces…conductor Jeremy Patterson's energising lead and the clear, fresh voices nevertheless provided an excellent foil to Pauline Alder's pure, uncomplicated soprano.
In comparison, the imaginative timbres and greater rigour of Jonathan Willcocks' Magnificat provided a more satisfying challenge, Gemini Brass responding with full-toned vigour and the chorus with versatility - lyrical in the second movement (soothing after unsettled intonation between organ, trumpet and soprano), reflective in the fourth and spirited to close.
It was left to the opening of Rutter's familiar Gloria and the direction of Anthony Bradbury to reveal the best of all musicians, when with the powerful support of Kevin Gill on organ and ebullient brass, resonant singing and ringing entries really did communicate exuberant inspiration.
Clare Mackney
The Birmingham Post, 27th November 2001

Vibrant and Colourful. 27th July 2001. Klosterkirche, Thalbürgel.
Anthony Bradbury [conductor] quickly brought about some magical climaxes in Byrd's Ave verum. Vibrant and colourful, this a cappella Tudor anthem exhibited a masterful gradation of dynamics, exemplified by a stunning ending which gently faded into peaceful oblivion. …two powerful performances of Britten's Choral Dances and Abendlied by Rheinberger, where the choir followed Anthony Bradbury's every gesture implicitly. …Bach's Lobet den Herrn with pitch, cohesion and blend attaining high standards of uniformity. Pauline Alder's hair tingling soprano in Mozart's Laudate Dominum, too, spoke real volumes and [BFCS] pianist Louise Andrews' impassioned execution of Rosemary by Frank Bridge, complemented by her exquisite technique and sensitive touch, made a deeply moving impact for which the candle-lit Klosterkirche supplied soothing succour and sanctuary.
Robin Leonard The Birmingham Post, 30th July 2001

Breaking the silence with Heavenly Voices. 23rd July 2001. The Nikolaikirche, Leipzig.
The magnificent Nikolaikirche normally exercises a strict vow of silence. On Monday, this silence broke forth into rapturous applause as, in place of the usual early-evening prayers, Birmingham Festival Choral Society sang its praises in concert. From the rousing opening item, Gloria in Excelsis by Shaw, an exemplary fanfare to the proceedings, to Elgar's My Love Dwelt in a Northern Land, the rich programme revealed a multitude of delight. Conductor Anthony Bradbury's uncompromising insistence on quality paid dividends especially in Stanford's Motets where a bristling tenor section shone as brilliant sunshine glistening on the church's gilt interior. Bach's Lobet den Herrn also yielded some surprising treasures. Still invigorated and enlightened by an earlier tour of Leipzig's centre, BFCS made Mendelssohn's Siehe, wir preisen the indisputable highlight. Indeed this heartfelt off-the-copy rendition was an apt tribute to a composer who invested so much in our country's musical development.
Robin Leonard The Birmingham Post, 25th July 2001.

A quintessentially English programme
…given BFCS' trademark insistence upon the highest standards… Several of BFCS' well-loved calling-cards featured in the programme, including a thrilling performance of three motets by Stanford, rich, sonorous and fluid. This was but one item in an appropriately British-dominated menu, highlights among which were Roger Quilter's Non nobis, Domine, as quintessentially English a gem as you could wish, Byrd's Ave Verum Corpus, brilliantly demonstrating BFCS' versatility in a range of styles, and a radiant reading of Peter Maxwell Davies' Lullabye for Lucy. …Britten's difficult Gloriana Choral Dances received a well-prepared, exuberant reading under Jeremy Patterson
Christopher Morley The Birmingham Post, 2nd July 2001

D'Erlanger and Joubert Concert, 31st Mar 2001
…a tremendous performance (its third from BFCS since its 1989 commissioning by them) of John Joubert's choral symphony For the Beauty of the Earth, genuine in its emotional transport and gripping in its organic growth.
Christopher Morley The Birmingham Post, 2nd April 2001

Setting the concert in the city's cathedral was the masterstroke - as darkness fell where better a place could we be to hear such sacred works?
Diane Parkes Birmingham Evening Mail, 2nd April 2000.

The Birmingham Festival Choral Society, one of the most robust and adventurous choirs, has never been a stranger to new music. Appropriately, the choir drew forth its most honeyed tones, while the BFCS Orchestra was exceptionally polished with Anthony Bradbury conducting. The spotlight then shifted to John Joubert and his choral symphony For the Beauty of the Earth. This is music of bouncing delight performed with gusto in this performance under Jeremy Patterson.
Geoff Brown The Times, 4th April 2001.

Masterpiece in its place
We have over the years endured too many bland presentations of Elgar's Dream of Gerontius in various West Country Cathedrals ....
....Saturday's performance from Birmingham Festival Choral Society, this magnificent enterprising body ...drew appreciative tears from many members of a packed house - this reviewer included.
Choral lines were judiciously balanced in this well prepared, well-rehearsed account under Jeremy Patterson, with superb diction, convincing characterisation .... and wonderful depth of tone.
The Birmingham Post (27th November 2000)

Symphony Hall
.....A beautiful Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves by the choral Society......The Choral Society's I was glad was well received and they joined the Central Band of the RAF to give a stirring choral version of the Dambusters March.
Birmingham Evening Mail (5th June 2000)

Balancing past and future perfect
The novelty was Te Deum by Antonin Tucapsky, commissioned [by BFCS] as part of Birmingham's Forward Festival and here given a deeply committed account in the presence of the composer by BFCS.... Its opening blazes in a manner of distinguished predecessors by Dvorak and Bruckner...Singing in Latin (one of four languages offered during the evening) BFCS gave a stirring reading.
Also present was Elis Pehkonen for a re-hearing of his vital, direct Laudate from 1995 [another BFCS commission]. Incisive diction from the choir enhanced the festive atmosphere of the work.
The Birmingham Post (10th April 2000)

Proud history of Nurturing the new
This account [of Pehkonen's Russian Requiem] found from BFCS a response to the texts as fervent as that of the composer (present here)...
Birmingham Post (29th March 1999)

Performance true to the spirit
....the chorus also proved responsive to the greater variety of colour and texture demanded by Psalmfest, Rutter's collation of nine psalm settings.
Birmingham Post (30th November 1998)

Melody and Song was our common language (in the Czech Republic).
....the concert in Prachatice's atmospheric church of St James the Greater ... ended highly emotionally, with the spontaneous presentation of a letter written in English by a member of the audience paying tribute to the expertise and sheer musicality of the Birmingham Festival Choral Society.
Birmingham Post (10th August 1998)

Cunning link makes for imaginative programming.
.........Jeremy Patterson drew a remarkably taut, well-blended orchestral sound in Mendelssohn's St Paul Overture, his BFCS sturdy and sensitive, singing from memory, in the chorus from the oratorio with which its ancestors 150 years ago in Birmingham marked the composer's death. Under Anthony Bradbury the BFCS sang with depth and security...a refreshingly swift reading [of Brahms' German Requiem].
Birmingham Post (1st December 1997)