From Nightly Fears and Fantasies
A review of the Hampstead Collective concert on 6th March
Suzanne Pinkerton
The ever-busy Hampstead Collective provided us with a lovely programme of music for Compline and Vespers. I don’t know who chose the programme but it covered some of the major figures, except that no Christian names were given. I had no trouble with the dear old friends like Monteverdi, but haven’t been able to discover who R Parsons or J Sheppard were. We had 5 voices, and also chamber organ played by Malachy Frame, who was also running the show, as it were.
We agreed that this programme of about 1 ½ hours was enough, as alot of the music heard was rather similar in style. If you didn’t know much Latin it meant thinking hard about which bit of the service we were hearing. We had various combinations of 5 voices – Rebecca Hardwick, soprano, Sarah Anne Champion, mezzo-soprano, 2 tenors – James Robinson and Jonny Hyde, Malachy as baritone and bass baritone Eoghan Desmond (and no, I don’t know how to pronounce it).
There were one or two solos, notably for the ladies, and it was particularly noticeable that everyone appeared to be enjoying themselves.
It may seem a frivolous thing to mention, but there was such an air of elegance about the team – they were all in black trouser suits, the ladies as well. And for somebody who is a beards enthusiast, I must say it included two very stylish beards, one black, on Mr Hyde and one golden on Mr Desmond.
I do recommend the concert on 3rd April when Collective stalwart Jacob Garside will play the Bach cello suites. Lovely!