Review: CBSO/Alfie Boe, at Symphony Hall

Apr 2 2010 By Norman Stinchcombe

Musical diabetics who are allergic to works with a high sugar content should imbibe Howard Goodall’s new choral work Eternal Light: A Requiem with caution. It brings not terror and sublimity, like Verdi or Mozart, but comfort and balm for the troubled soul.

There is nothing to match the spiritual angst of Elgar’s Gerontius; Goodall’s initial inspiration is Ann Thorp’s twee verse, winningly sung by tenor Alfie Boe, which sees the deity as cross between a social worker and a senior management motivator.

The CBSO Youth Chorus sang splendidly obviously relishing the lively Carl Orff-inspired Revelation movement. Natasha Marsh sang sweetly and baritone William Berger was firm and dignified in Do not stand at my grave and weep, which sounds like a first rate West End musical number.

Nothing in the work matched Boe’s splendidly passionate full-throated performance of Finzi’s Dies Natalis, admirably supported by the CBSO strings conducted by Simon Halsey. Finzi’s settings of Traherne’s mystical poetry conveyed the wonder, rhapsody and rapture of their titles, with Boe as an eloquent advocate.

The CBSO Youth Chorus’s girls, accompanied by harp, sang winningly in Holst’s third set of Choral Hymns from Rig Veda making their conductor Julian Wilkins justifiably proud.

Rating: 4/5