La passione - Wolf-Ferrari Choral No 1 - Franck Messe a trois voix - Franck THE choral concerts by the Czech Chamber Choir (whose members form the core of the opera chorus) are a distinctive part of the Wexford Festival. This year's programme under Lubomir Matl is being given in Rowe Street Church to mark the restoration of the church's 1858 organ, built by the Dublin firm of Telford & Telford.

The major work presented at last Saturday's concert was the early and musically variable Mass in A by Cesar Franck, for soloists (Ljuba Chuchrova, soprano, Alessandro Safina, tenor, and Stefano RinaldiMiliani, bass) and choir with the accompaniment of organ, harp, cello and double bass. The choral singing was firm and full, the solo contributions, with much forcing of tone and some vagaries of intonation, less rewarding.

Organist Andrew Synnott played Franck's Choral in E. He secured beautiful colouring from the restored organ, but chose to unfold the work with a consistent firmness of pulse that quickly came to feel rigid. The Czech choir opened the concert with a performance of Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari's La passione, a simple and beautiful-sounding recursive setting (in German) of a Tuscan folk poem.

This concert will be repeated next Saturday afternoon.