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LEICESTER MERCURY

05/11/09

LONDON MOZART PLAYERS, Conductor – Simon Halsey

DE MONTFORT HALL, LEICESTER

30 OCTOBER 2009

Review by Malcolm Warner

Solo voices a little lost in music

IN AUGUST 1798 the British Navy under Nelson soundly thrashed the French at Aboukir in Egypt.

That same month, Haydn had just completed the third of his six sublime late mass settings. Known originally as Missa in Angustiis -the Mass in Fearful Times - the work soon became known as the Nelson Mass, and Nelson himself probably heard it performed in 1800.

This year saw the 200th anniversary of Haydn's death and, in celebration, the Leicester Philharmonic Choir and London Mozart Players under the energetic direction of Simon Halsey gave a fine performance of this great work.

The choral and orchestral forces were well balanced, Haydn in those straitened times added only trumpets, timpani, and organ to the strings, and the crispness and attack of the timpani - played with hard sticks - gave a clarity to the rhythmic impulse.

The four soloists, who otherwise sang well, seemed to have rather small voices which did not really carry in a hall of this size.

Haydn started the concert too, the second of his Te Deums, again in an excellent performance, showing the choir and orchestra's response to this conductor, attentive to every mood of the music.

Mozart's Clarinet Concerto, given a mellifluous performance by Angela Malsbury, provided the orchestral item between the choral pieces - although it now seems unusual to hear it played on a conventional clarinet rather than the lower basset clarinet for which it was written.

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