Quavering singing mars combined choral entry

Symphony No 2 in C Minor "Resurrection"

Any performance of Mahler's Resurrection Symphony is an event, so its first performance in Belfast by a professional orchestra was surely an ideal way to launch this year's Belfast Festival. What is said to be the largestever professional orchestra to play in the city - 120 players - was assembled for the occasion (unfortunately they did not include a proper pipe organ: the Waterfront Hall does not as yet have one).

In spite of this, the music made a greater impact in the quieter moments, when one could revel in Mahler's exquisite orchestral writing, than in the louder passages, where one kept wishing that Zander would allow the music more strength and weight.

Nevertheless, the Resurrec- tion made its usual cathartic impact, and heard live, Maher's "effects" - his offstage horn calls, drums, and band - made an impression no recording can approach. Unfortunately the most telling coup de theatre of all, the hushed entry of the chorus, was spoilt by some of the weakest, most quavering choral singing it has been my misfortune to hear. The chorus seemed to have no body of tone at all. The Belfast Philharmonic and RTE Philharmonic Choirs combined for this concert, but if this is really the best they can do one can only wonder what choral singing in this country is coming to. The soloists, contralto Jean Rigby and soprano Louise Walsh, compensated.