Hertfordshire Chorus at The Sage Gateshead

It is said the English romantic poet John Keats wrote his Ode to a Nightingale in a single day in 1819, inspired by one of the birds singing in a garden. Evidently it took the Durham-born composer Will Todd rather longer to set it to music, having been commissioned by Hertfordshire Chorus patron Rod Jones. In the programme, Todd reveals the humility he felt, having to work with a poem which has meant so much to so many people. He writes about his working method, the succession of drafts, the first “heartfelt and very bad”, and the intensifying pressure as the deadline approaches.

The resulting one-act choral symphony was premiered at London’s Barbican arts centre last May but got its first stunning North East performance recently, sandwiched between Mendelssohn’s Psalm 42 and the Mozart Requiem.

The Hertfordshire Chorus, under its Newcastle-born musical director David Temple, made an impressive sight, its ranks of black-clad singers – more than 100-strong – ranged across the stage. The choir makes a big sound, as you might expect, but most impressive of all, it is extremely well drilled and can turn on a sixpence.

Todd’s work puts great demands on the singers, its big, long notes and phrases seeming to invite hyper-ventilation, but all proved equal to it. Keats wrote of nature and the realisation of mortality (he would die a couple of years later of tuberculosis, aged just 25) in a poem full of light and shade. Todd’s piece, comprising great ebbing and flowing tides of sound, does justice to it, capturing the mood even if – inevitably – some of the words are lost.

Accompanied by the English Philharmonic Orchestra, led by Tristan Jurney, Todd’s work proved more than just a tasty starter before the main Mozart course was served.

But the Requiem was brilliant too, bringing out the best in soloists Katharine Watson, Kitty Whately (Kevin’s talented daughter), Joshua Ellicott and Michael Bundy.

Miss Watson, a bit of a nightingale herself, also shone in the earlier Mendelssohn piece, a work of delicate beauty.

The audience was disappointingly small but it departed happy. Hopefully the Hertfordshire Chorus will be back before too long. It has championed Will Todd whose mounting achievements should be celebrated here on his home soil.