11th January 2012

Bryan Gipps Esq
Sutton Valence Choral Society

Dear Bryan,
Little did I realise when I urged you to record Reg Moore's première that it would be of such benefit to me myself! I was so sorry not to be present, but enormously grateful that you asked Andrew Coulson to give me a recording. Thank you both.

And thank you, Bryan, for the considerable amount of preparatory work you undertook to bring this première to pass with your Sutton Valence Choral Society, the Beresford Sinfonia (in fine form) and the excellent Helen Bailey. What a good performer she is! – assured, committed and compelling: just the person you need to inspire the choir and the audience. Her arrival and her final word in "O praise God” section was masterly. Reg's writing for trumpet and drums was uplifting, and so were the two performers of those instruments.

The second movement – the Lamentation – seemed wonderfully "English" in style, to me: the melisma at "we hanged" and the modal cadence at "are therein" underlined this. The rise and fall of the music poignantly suggested the confrontation between tormentors and tormented. Choir and soloist worked well together to achieve this, and the orchestra pulsated tellingly beneath. Solo horn and cello added to the intensity and despair.

In the declamatory third section Reg's lovely phrase "as morning view" (for the soprano soloist) was a high point, as was the choir's utter determination, bravery and boldness throughout, never more so than in the full-blooded final chord of the work. As I recall, Reg would have been delighted by that!

Congratulations to you all on such a fervent première.  Reg Moore is surely in the fine tradition of English choral composers writing in an idiom already graced by Handel, Parry and Vaughan Williams. How wonderful to hear Reg speaking again to us through his music!  Thank you all.

Barry (Ferguson)