Although coinciding with a single cold, windy and wet day in the heatwave, Froxfield Choir’s 50th anniversary concert, Jubilate, at Holy Trinity Church in Privett was a wonderful, celebratory event.

The choir was founded in 1972 by Elizabeth Gotto, who sung with the altos and – one hopes – felt a little bit proud of how her seedling has flourished. Post pandemic restrictions, the choir now boasts more than 40 singers with an especially strong showing of tenors.

The full house for the fundraising concert in aid of the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Air Ambulance was firstly serenaded by the Churcher’s College Senior Jazz Trio.

The choir began with a marvellously-measured rendition of Zadok the Priest by Handel. Mozart’s Laudate Dominum followed, sung by Alice Howell from the Trinity Laban Conservatoire.

Then the tightly-knit, Berkshire-based West Forest Sinfonia, demonstrating a good rapport between orchestra and conductor, took centre stage with Mozart’s Overture La Clemenza di Tito.

But the highlight of the concert was Michael Orchard’s setting of The Darkling Thrush by poet Thomas Hardy.

Orchard’s response to the challenge of putting it to music was well conceived, and constructed from simple ideas.

It used a slightly folkish but original, well-shaped and catchy melody, built on wide-arching musical phrases presented in subtle and appropriate variations.

But what particularly drew the attention was the depiction of birdsong.

With the removal of the orchestral accompaniment the choir provided delicate counterpoint to the avian voices, sensitively and beautifully played by piccolo, flute and oboe. The piece garnered rapturous applause and I for one would have been happy if it had been encored immediately – one is confident this will not be the last we hear from Mr Orchard’s musical pen.

A highly-successful Parry’s anthem I Was Glad for small orchestra ended the first half.

Beethoven’s Mass in C greeted the audience on their return. Beethoven pushed the bounds of structure and harmony, but it is possible that setting words to this piece may have inhibited innovation. Soloists Rhian Davies (mezzo soprano), Alexander White (tenor), Johannes Gerges (bass baritone), all studying at, or graduated from, Trinity Laban, joined Alice Howell for this intriguing piece.

Conductor Michael Servant had clearly done a good job bringing the forces together earlier in the day to prepare for the performance. He was calmly and efficiently in control and the resulting performance was cohesive and expressive. A few moments of uncertainty no doubt came from the compressed time scale for rehearsing the performance in the afternoon.

Again, there was enthusiastic applause for this most worthy celebration of 50 years of choral endeavour in Froxfield.

Here’s to the next 50!

Chris Gardener