IN a departure from their normal mixture of songs from the world of opera, operetta and the musicals, the society performed a programme in memory of Grace Evans, who died in April.

The programme began with Vivaldi's Gloria in D, and the choir gave a very powerful performance of this, especially the opening Gloria in Excelsis Deo.

The duet Laudamus te was sung by musical director Judith Standing, and her daughter-in-law Lynn Standing, and their voices blended together superbly.

Following this work, we were treated to a quartet singing Cast Thy Burden from Elijah by Mendelssohn. Claire Darby, Jonathan Darby, Brian Potter and Caroline Worthington sang this very well, again with a good blend of voices.

Then Judith sang Let the Bright Seraphim from Samson by Handel, a difficult piece to sing, but she was well up to the task.

The first half ended with Then round about the starry throne, again from Samson.

The second half comprised Schubert's Mass in G major, written when the composer was just 18.

At times the tenors were a little shaky here, especially on the higher notes.

However, there were good solo performances from Sharon Toy, Alan Savage and Jonathan.

My favourite work of the evening was the last one, Rutter's Magnificat, which is a beautiful work, and here Vivienne Seville was in superb voice, especially the lovely Et Misericorida, the beautiful, melodic Esuriente implevit bonus, and Sancta Maria. Again at times the tenors struggled, but I really enjoyed this item.

I have to say that this is not my favourite kind of music, but I enjoyed the evening and it was certainly "different" for Stourport Choral and Operatic Society. VJS