Venue: St Michael’s Church, Dalston
Date: Saturday, 28 February 2026
Artists: Wordsworth Singers, Andy McTaggart (conductor)
Dreaming The Heavens
This was the first of two linked spring concerts, the second being ‘Awakening the Earth’ on 2 May. St. Michael’s Church at Dalston provided a suitable venue allowing the ethereal sounds to soar upwards and outwards. The pieces included ranged from the twelfth to the twenty-first century. They were interspersed by four poems, one by Hildegard of Bingen and three by modern poets.
The first piece was Benjamin Britten’s ‘Hymn to St Cecilia’. This is a challenging work, but the choir handled it with good phrasing and dynamics which enabled the different feelings in Auden’s poetry to come through clearly. This was followed by the first two movements of Palestrina’s ‘Missa Sine Nomine a6’ with the remaining three movements following later in the programme. This demanded a good polyphonic sound which the choir admirably achieved in all three sections. The first part was followed by Hildegard’s antiphon for the Creator ‘O quam mirabilis est’ where the sopranos and altos of the choir were spread across the front and down the sides of the nave to provide a sound akin to the uplifting nature of the medieval music.
The audience was then jolted suddenly into the modern world with pieces by Thea Musgrave. The choir admirably handled the change in tone and modern rhythms which brought the music alive and delighted the audience with its atmospheric sound effects. We were then transported back again in time by an imaginative reinterpretation by Roderick Williams of William Byrd’s ‘Ave Verum Corpus’ in which the choir was able to maintain the feeling of the original within the more modern framework. The final two pieces: ‘Leonardo dreams of his flying machine’ by Eric Whitacre and ‘Dream Angus’ by Sheena Phillips provided good contrasts with the earlier written pieces. These were interlaced with returns to works performed earlier in the programme.
Overall the choir, under its conductor Andy McTaggart, achieved a consistently harmonious sound beautifully performing the complex and varied musical interpretation of ‘heavenly dreams’.
Clive Riches (Carlisle Music Society)
Venue: Austin Friars School Chapel, Carlisle
Date: Saturday, 22 November 2025
Artists: Wordsworth Singers, Andy McTaggart (conductor)
A Poised and Moving Rachmaninov Vespers
The Wordsworth Singers’ performance of Rachmaninov’s Vespers on 22nd November captivated a full chapel with an accomplished blend of discipline and emotional depth. Set in the candlelit Austin Friars chapel, filled with a large, attentive audience, the atmosphere was ideal for Rachmaninov’s meditative, spiritual sound world.
From the bright, focused opening with carefully shaped phrases, the choir established a warm, resonant tone that immediately captivated the audience. The first movement, “Blessed is the Man,” displayed a broad dynamic palette with rich contrasts, setting the tone for the rest of the performance. Overall, the choir produced a poised, emotionally charged, and focused performance, maintaining excellent intonation for the majority of the work — a remarkable achievement given the entirely a cappella setting.
The ensemble’s cohesion was a testament to conductor Andy McTaggart, whose leadership demonstrated remarkable musical authority. He shaped every phrase with precision, bringing clarity and purpose to every phrase, and highlighted both technical clarity and emotional nuance.
In “Bless the Lord, O My Soul,” a rich alto solo stood out against a delicate soprano accompaniment. Tenor solos in “O Gladsome Light” and “The Story of the Resurrection” impressed with a rich, resonant tone and superb breath control, projecting above the choir without overpowering it. Balance between the parts was carefully maintained. Despite a large bass section providing depth, the choir never felt bottom-heavy, allowing the upper voices to shine.
A particularly poignant moment came in “Ave Maria / Bogoroditse Devo,” where interweaving lines built with passion to a rich climax, and the soaring soprano lines were delivered with radiant clarity. The choir also created a palpable sense of stillness at the end of the “Magnificat.”
Overall, it was an atmospheric, skilfully executed concert that was profoundly moving.
Sarah Massey