A busy weekend for Stephen Layton's vocal ensemble Polyphony saw them give Handel's Messiah on Saturday and half of Bach's Christmas Oratorio on Sunday, both at St John's, Smith Square. They were assisted in Sunday's programme by the early music group Canzona (directed by Theresa Caudle) which, as well as accompanying the first three parts of the Bach, filled out the programme with Corelli's Concerto Grosso Op 6 no 8 in G minor, the "Christmas Concerto".
The core of Canzona is small but flexible - players are added for larger works such as the Bach - and a sense of that individual response came across in the Corelli. Just as the members of a string quartet would interact, so Canzona's instrumentalists breathed together in the Adagio sections and struck sparks off each other in the Allegros.
Taking over the direction for the Christmas Oratorio, Stephen Layton adopted similarly judicious tempi. The Sinfonia introducing Part 2, another pastoral movement, had a perfectly judged, lilting dotted rhythm, pushing gently forward all the time. The big choral movements, such as those opening Parts 1 and 3, had buoyancy as well as an appropriately celebratory air, while the chorales were treated with imaginative variety.
Catherine Bott made the most of the relatively minor soprano role, duetting stylishly with the bass, Michael George. In Lord, Thy Mercy, George himself has one of the noblest voices in the early music business, and even if there were worrying signs of it spreading unduly, he delivered his numbers with customary aplomb. Catherine Wyn-Rogers was a fine contralto soloist in Slumber Beloved while, in the tenor role, James Gilchrist was fresh of voice and animated of line.