Sung with relish and a smile - 8.07.08

[Concert Review – The Pits, Bridewell Hall, London] Michael Church, The Independent – 07 July 2008 (4*)

Why would a singing group call themselves The Pits – because they know they’re rubbish? In fact, the name derives from their debut for some Formula One luminaries, but as members of the chamber choir Tenebrae, they have an impeccable pedigree. And when they took the stage, it was for the laudable purpose of celebrating the sort of domestic music-making that was the norm in Victorian and Edwardian times.

I had never known the origin of that teasing line, sung by women to young men loafing in London rather than getting gassed in the First World War trenches: “We don’t want to lose you, but we think you ought to go.” Nice to discover its full setting in a ditty called “Your King and Country Want You”. Nice also to hear a proper rendition of “Come into the Garden, Maud” – Schubert with a Neapolitan gloss. Elgar, Stanford and Sullivan all turned up trumps, sung with relish and a smile: this music was designed to give pleasure to those who performed it, but that pleasure was guaranteed to rub off on all around. This talented a cappella group could have kept us happily listening all night.