May 2025

Phoenix Choir combined with an expanded Kanimbla quartet and four young soloists to present works by Bach and his German contemporaries.

The centrepiece of the concert was the J S Bach masterpiece, Cantata No. 4, Christ lag in Todesbanden. This is an Easter work which celebrates the resurrection with an abundance of joyous hallelujahs and also finds an exquisite counterpoint with the grief of Passiontide. Bach makes the most of the chorale tune, cutting it every which way for fugues, chorale preludes, and a spine-chilling duet before closing the work and the concert with an assured four-part hymnal rendition, as was often the tradition.

Musical director Amy Moore matched this great work with an equivalent cantata from Bach’s contemporary, Johann Kuhnau and an early baroque work for two antiphonal choirs by Heinrich Schütz. The Chamber Choir sang Bach’s celebrated motet Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied to complete the program.

Baroque music needs a countertenor, and Phoenix were pleased to welcome back Michael Burden who, since he previously performed with the choir in 2023 has been building a substantial operatic and concert resume most recently with Pinchgut Opera and the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra. Amy Moore also used her Song Company connections to engage Josephine Brereton (Soprano), Alex Gorbatov (Tenor) and Aidan O’Donnell(Bass) who are all up-and-coming soloists from the Song Company Emerging Artists program. There were many highlights including the breathtakingly low notes from Aidan singing half a tone lower in baroque pitch, but perhaps the standout was the spinechilling duet “Den Tod” with the beautifully matched voices of Josephine and Matthew in the Bach Cantata.

The orchestrations call for a second viola so the Kanimbla Quintet has been expanded to include local viola player Laura Jamieson. She joins Rebecca Daniel and Bridget Hall on violin, Sam Harding on viola and Arran Hamilton on cello, with Julie Adam providing organ continuo.

The staging for the concert allowed us to divide the choir properly to either sides of the stage for the Schütz Singet dem Herrn which was achieved with an orderly transition. And the antiphonal effect in the audience brought real life to the work.

Phoenix Choir performed Bach, Kuhnau and Schütz in the Phillips Hall in Blackheath on Saturday 17 May 2025.