Horsham Chamber Choir delight their audience

On Saturday, 23rd November, Horsham Chamber Choir gave a wonderful performance of works by Bach, Handel, Telemann and Vivaldi, accompanied by the Cavelli Consort consisting of baroque strings and oboes together with organ continuo, under the direction of Musical Director Jenny Hansell.

The mellow tones of this ensemble, which included a violone as well as two baroque oboes, proved to be the ideal complement to the Choir who were in excellent voice. The concert started with one of the Chandos Anthems by Handel, commissioned by the Duke of Chandos, and concluded with movements of another of these anthems, which included a solo from one of the Choir’s sopranos, Sarah Russell. No original Bach manuscript of the motet Lobet den Hern has been found, but the work is attributed to Bach because no one else could have written it! It certainly kept the Choir on their toes. The organ continuo was played by David Hansell.

The concert, which started at 4.30pm, was timed to coincide with late afternoon Christmas shoppers who were able to drop their shopping and have a glass of mulled apple juice before the concert, and another one in the interval, and still get home in time for Strictly Come Dancing. This late afternoon performance proved to be the ideal prelude to Christmas.