National Chamber Choir/Colin Mawby

It was an all Brahms programme last Thursday evening in the National Gallery. The National Chamber Choir sang one song unaccompanied, two songs with piano played by David Brophy, and the 18 Liebeslieder Walzer, in which Brophy was joined by Fergal Caulfield, four hands at one piano. The two pianists also performed four of Brahms's Hungarian Dances.

I must admit to a preference for unaccompanied choral singing and I thought the choir at its most persuasive in the gentle resignation of Ach, arme Welt (Alas, vain world!). When singing with the piano, the sopranos occasionally forced the tone in a way that made one wonder if Brahms had anticipated Berio.

The somewhat cavernous acoustic in the National Gallery made the piano sound highly unsympathetic and the Hungarian Dances sounded rougher than Brahms would have intended. The most satisfactory blend of voices and piano came in the Liebeslieder Walzer. What a variety of feeling and approach there is in this smallscale work compared with the massive juggernauts from the Strauss waltz factory. The cross rhythms between voices and piano and the vocal elaboration of the simple traditional words give the impression of the composer at play, and the choir happily combined light hearted charm with romantic feeling.

It was a good idea of the conductor, Colin Mawby, to explore Brahms's choral work in this way, and the programme could, with ad vantage, have been a little longer.