Music / Canberra Choral Society: Dixit Dominus. At St Paul’s Anglican Church, Manuka, May 3. Reviewed by HELEN MUSA.

Both the chosen works, George Frideric Handel’s Dixit Dominus and Arvo Pärt’s Berliner Messe were based on Latin liturgical and biblical texts, yet it would be hard to imagine a more contrasting repertoire than that chosen by artistic director and conductor Dan Walker to be performed by his well-trained choristers, five soloists and a small ensemble led by violinist John Ma.

I say contrasting, because although both works are celebratory in nature, the first is modest and dignified, while the second is full of confident triumphalism.

Pärt wrote his Berlin Mass, which largely follows the traditional Kyrie-Gloria-Credo-Sanctus-Agnus Dei format, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. You might have thought this would be a moment to gloat, but on the contrary, Pärt chose a quiet approach, with not a hint of triumphalism in it.

Quite the opposite is Handel’s early work Dixit Dominus (The Lord Said) composed in 1707 when Handel, aged 22, was living in Rome. It’s a setting of Psalm 110 for chorus, soloists, strings and continuo, in which the Almighty threatens to smite His enemies.

The one-hour concert began with the Pärt, as the full choir sang in harmony to create a deeply resonant account of the opening Kyrie and Gloria, which reverberated throughout the church.

Then, in a departure from the normal mass, tenor soloist Tom Hallworth and bass Alasdair Stretch sang two seasonally -timed Pentecostal Alleluias before returning to the main theme with Veni Sancte Spiritus (Come Holy Spirit).

Picking up the pace, the full chorus joined in to sing a perfectly-phrase Credo, an affirmation of redemption matching the Berlin Wall connection.

The beautifully controlled conclusion of the Pärt mass presented an eloquent plea for peace.

With hardly time to draw breath – you could almost see the chorus flexing in their muscles as they warmed up for what was to come – they launched into Handel’s formidable Dixit Dominus.

This is definitely what you would call a “big sing” and places enormous demands on both choristers and soloists.

There’s little restraint in this work, which begins with the assertive words, “The Lord says to my lord: Sit at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool.”

After a gentle instrumental introduction in Virgam virtutis tuae, soloist AJ America rose, her rich voice echoing as she sang her sustained notes, before soprano Josephine Brereton stood to continue in the optimistic vein.

By the time the full choir joined in Juravit dominus, you could see what Handel was up to, carefully pacing the sections so that the choral harmony was interspersed with the solos, giving choristers time to catch their breaths.

There followed an extraordinary movement, Judicabit in nationibus, where the Almighty promises to “fill the places with the dead bodies and smite in sunder the heads over diverse countries”.

Here it is not people but words that are dismembered into staccato chunks of sound, used not for meaning but to aggressive, violent effect.

In the final Gloria Patri, instead of slowing down to a quiet finish, we saw the twin sopranos Rachel Mink and Brereton, then Hallworth, Stretch, America and the full chorus joining in for a full-bodied conclusion to a flawless performance.