A FEW years ago, a friend suggested there were too many choirs in Wirral.
Maybe that's true, as competition for audiences is extremely fierce, but what is also true is that there is an extraordinary number of choirs doing extraordinary work.
At the forefront is Birkenhead Choral Society, whose latest concert in Wallasey played to an almost full house.
Their programme of Schubert and Haydn was deceptively challenging, the Schubert C major Magnificat especially.
For the most part, the chorus held up especially well with, understandably, a few patches where things felt a little shaky. A slight reservation might be that the men, slightly underpowered, tended to overcompensate by singing consistently forte.
They opened with Schubert's Mass No 2 in G, which blossomed into a positive, forthright performance.
Schubert's Magnificat was an animated performance although in the Gloria the men's leads were not always convincing.
The four soloists from the Royal Northern College of Music acquitted themselves particularly well. Of special note was the tenor Robert Gardiner whose powerful and pure voice was particularly good. Soprano Rebecca Goulden has a big voice and used it, sometimes almost overwhelming mezzo-soprano Michelle Daly and baritone Thomas Eaglen.
David Holroyd's constant leadership and the dependable playing of Liverpool Philharmonia Orchestra proved, surely, that there are not too many choirs in Wirral.
