St Augustine’s, Bexhill, 5 October 2013

Mozart’s unfinished C minor Mass is not long enough for an evening by itself and on this occasion was sensibly supported by shorter liturgical works by near contemporaries.

The opening Kyrie of the C minor brought us solid choral sound and more than sufficient orchestral accompaniment, and there was a good sense of attack in the Gloria. Claire Williamson had no difficulty with the coloratura of Laudamus te and her duet with Sophie Pullen for Domine Deus was pleasing. Sophie Pullen herself floated the heady lines of Et incarnatus est with ease. If the chorus suffered with occasional poor entries they managed to pull things together for the Sanctus and concluded the work with aplomb, thanks to the strengthening of the solo quartet.

Kenneth Roberts’ approach to the Mass was brisk and business-like but he was more lyrical for Schubert’s Magnificat D486, which allowed all the soloists to blossom before a finely honed Gloria patri.

Amidst the sacred works came two interlopers. The strings of the Sussex Concert Orchestra gave us a workmanlike rendition of Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik, and Peter Grevatt sang the count’s aria from Act 3 of Le Nozze di Figaro. Though splendidly done it did seem a little out of place.

The evening concluded with J C Bach’s Magnificat in C. The bassoons left at this point which was a pity given the fine solo they had provided during Mozart’s Et incarnates est but Andy Gill’s solo trumpet more than compensated. The work looks back rather than forward and is easier on the chorus than the earlier works. It proved to be a fine conclusion to a rewarding evening.

The next event for Bexhill Choral Society will be Carols for Choir and Orchestra at 7.30pm Saturday 7 December, at St Augustine’s, Bexhill. www.bexhillchoral.org.uk 01424 213352 BH

26 August 2013

Gordon Stewart returned, as he has done every year since the series started, to play the final concert. His reputation, and the continuing quality of performances under Marion Lovell’s splendid guidance, guarantee a splendid evening – and they did not disappoint.

He knows the Willis organ well and opened with a richly registered account of Handel’s overture to an Occasional Oratorio, followed by two works by Bach. There was fine solo work in the Chorale Prelude Liebster Jesu and impressive articulation in the Fugue alla Gigue.  The action of the Willis is known to be very heavy which may account for the unexpectedly relaxed quality of Bach’s arrangement of Vivaldi’s A minor concerto for two violins. Moving back to Britain we heard A Little Tune by W Felton, a contemporary of Handel but not in his class melodically. J Bonnet’s Variations de Concert concluded the first half with panache.

The Willis can produce some fine French sounds when needed but was not quite up to the first movement of Widor’s Sixth Symphony, even with some strong pedal work. Rawsthorne’s Waltz and Danse de Papillons were much more in keeping with both the occasion and the instrument, before we heard Franck’s Third Chorale. The opening and closing sections worked well but the romantic central section seemed a little rushed. J Bervieller’s Mouvement was the only really modern piece in the programme and proved to be both exciting and challenging, which brought us to the final piece of the published programme. I did not know A Renaud’s Toccata in D minor but it is a fine piece which sits very well on the Willis and is somewhere between Boellmann and Franck in its tonal palette.

Of course there was an encore – Rawsthorne’s Celtic Lament – a gentle warmth to send us on our way until we return on 7 July 2014 for the 26^th season. BH

Marion was presented with a 25^th anniversary cake which was shared by us all during the interval – and many thanks to Ann for providing this!

Monday 19 August, 2013

Charles Andrews is a man of few words but a keen sense for the creation of colour. His programme opened with a substantial number of works by J S Bach, flowing into Widor and Dupre, allowing him to demonstrate not only his own skill but also the ability of the Willis to move easily from north German baroque to French romantic.

His first piece, however, lay outside of this, bringing us Weitz’ Fanfare and Gothic March to show off the range of reeds on the Willis. A surprisingly heavy handed rendition of Saint-Saens’ Le cygne led us into the Bach sequence. The solo voices in O Mensch bewein were pleasing but it was BWV678 from the Clavierubung which really impressed with fine fluidity and clear solo voices.

The Prelude and Fugue in G BWV541 was bright and bold, with seamless changes of registration, and led to a gently refined Wenn wir in hochsten. Dupre’s transcription of the opening sinfonia from BWV29 brought splendid articulation and a staccato attack.

The second half opened with the F major Toccata BWV540 which was almost too fast for the action and became somewhat garbled in places. The programme now moved to the French repertoire with the Andante cantabile from Widor’s fourth symphony. An unfamiliar piece to many in the audience, we perhaps need to hear more of Widor than the familiar lollipops. Its gentle beguiling tones were very effective. Saint-Saens’ Op99 Prelude and Fugue sounds more pianistic with its rapid arpeggios even in the more austere fugal writing. Dupre’s Magnificat was probably the most challenging work of the evening though the final Prelude and Fugue, with its dancing syncopations and stream of little bells was charming.

In total contrast Charles Andrews played Walton’s Orb and Sceptre as an encore. Again, over fast, the detail was often lost in translation.

Next week, Gordon Stewart will give the final concert in this 25^th anniversary season. BH

Unitarian Meeting Place, Hastings, Saturday 17 August 2013

The third in the current series of concerts brought not only an impressive range of organ music but songs performed by Soprano Gaby Manoukian. Her beautiful voice filled the building with the same ease we have come to expect from the Snetzler organ and her warm tones seemed to surround us.

The afternoon opened with Gordon Young’s familiar Prelude in Classic style but then went straight into an early work unknown to most of us. Richard Jones was a contemporary of Handel but is almost unperformed today. His Toccata in D Minor proved to be impressive and gave Stephen the chance to display a strong range of colour. Bach’s Short Prelude and Fugue in C minor was given a breathy, gentle quality in contrast to the previous pieces.

Cesar Franck’s Andantino is a strange work and even those of us familiar with the composer could be forgiven for not recognising it as part of his canon. Almost tongue-in-cheek in places, its lightness works well and made a suitable link to Samuel Wesley’s Sonata in Eb, with its Mozartian fluidity. Possibly the only really serious work of the afternoon was Buxtehude’s refined chorale prelude on Vater unser in Himmelreich.

Gaby Manoukian joined Stephen to sing Beethoven’s Ich liebe dich, her tone quickly settling into the ambiance of the building and mirroring the organ in impact. Her rendition of Mendelssohn’s Auf flugen des Gesanges made us wish we could hear far more.

Stephen continued with Mendelssohn, giving us the Andante religioso from the fourth sonata, a fine bridge between the airy lightness of the song and Matthew Camidge’s upbeat Concerto No2 in G minor. A gentle voluntary by Francis Linley, another Handelian contemporary, paved the way for Gaby Manoukian’s final song, a moving rendition of Amazing Grace. Singing unaccompanied for some of the verses, her voice seemed at one with the building and those of us gathered to listen. It was as much an act of worship as art. Please come again!

Stephen has always had the uncanny knack of turning any organ into a Wurlitzer and did so again in the final two pieces by Lyn Larsen. In Sorrento he even managed to create a Wurlitzer tremolo!

The final concert is during Hastings Week on Saturday 19 October. BH

Monday 12 August

Stephen Disley may still be recovering from a recent wrist injury but there was little sign of this in his fluid articulation throughout his All Saints concert. The only slight indication was the shorter second half and the larger number of short pieces which allowed brief times of recovery between works.

He opened with Charpentier’s familiar Prelude to a Te Deum with extrovert reeds in play, a fitting contrast to the relaxed but finely ornamented reading of Bach’s Air on a G string which followed. The more demanding exigencies of Bach’s Fantasia and Fugue in C minor BWV537 were given an impressively steely organo pleno, before the more relaxed short works by Fiocco. The last of these, he admitted, was not actually by Fiocco but proved twinklingly pretty nonetheless.

Liszt’s Consolation seemed rather lost amidst the brightness around it, but Daquin’s Le Coucou raised the temperature again. Guilmant’s March on a theme of Handel sounded far more like Mendelssohn than the baroque master, but the fiery fugue had the Willis working at full capacity.

The second half opened with Karg-Elert’s Nun Danket before a wonderfully English rendition of Thalben-Ball’s Elegy. This floated gently in a post-Elgarian haze with rich cathedral-like registration.

Bach’s Piece d’Orgue brought possibly the finest playing of the evening before Guy Bovet’s tongue-in-cheek Le Bolero du Divin Mozart. The final from Langlais’ Triptyque brought the evening to a close. The work may be more demanding on the ear but the quality of articulation and registration was, as it had been throughout, captivating.

A brief Tudor dance served as an encore to a thoroughly satisfying concert.

Next week Charles Andrews from All Saints, Margaret Street, will give the seventh concert in this 25^th anniversary season. BH

Friday 9th August, St Thomas of Canterbury Church, St Leonards on Sea

Even though I knew she had a lovely voice, having heard Anya Williams sing with her church choir, I was totally unprepared for the beauty of the voices we heard  at St Thomas of Canterbury Church.  Anya and Lucy Ashton sang together as Melodia to raise funds for St Michael’s Hospice.  The evening, entitled Women of Opera, included duets and solos from ten different operas, ably accompanied at the piano by Richard Eldridge.

These young singers, both still training, sang with such confidence that there was never any doubt about difficult passages or hitting high notes.  The audience was merely overwhelmed with delight.

Anya’s Angels ever bright and fair from Handel’s Theodora, was indeed angelic, both in voice and presence.

One becomes perhaps over familiar with perfected recordings such as Delibes’ duet from Lakme and hearing other less experienced renditions can be discomforting, but not on this occasion.  Melodia blended their voices with finesse and produced a smooth haunting sound.

I look forward to hearing them again and recommend that the careers of Anya Williams and Lucy Ashton be followed with keen expectation. SH

The magnificent re-ordering of St Clement’s Church, Hastings Old Town, has included the replacement of the pipe organ with a three manual and pedal Viscount digital organ. At a lunchtime concert on 7 August, as part of Hastings Old Town Week, Rev Robert Featherstone played a range of works to demonstrate the new instrument, opening with Arthur Wills’ Fanfare which gave us the power of the instrument as well as a taste of its reed capacity. Bach’s Giant Fugue allowed us a feel of the potential for north German voicing before a gentle and highly effective reading of Henry Ley’s Prelude on Down Ampney.

W Lloyd Webber’s Trumpet Minuet demonstrated a different side of the reeds before a relaxed reading of Whitlock’s Folk Tune allowed us to hear the gentler choruses and strings. Vierne’s Berceuse, possibly the most effective piece of the concert, showed us the dynamic range of the Swell, and the subtlety it can produce. As this organ will be used primarily for liturgical purposes it was fitting that the main programme ended with David Terry’s Prelude on Angel Voices. Being both quintessentially English and yet modern in its harmonies, it was a fine conclusion to a pleasing range of works.

With only a little persuasion, Robert Featherstone gave us C S Lang’s Tuba Tune as an encore, and a bright, enthusiastic rounding-off. St Clement’s are privileged to have a leader who is not only an enthusiast where church music is concerned but a professional organist in his own right.

Many were sorry to lose the old pipe organ but, rightly, the All Saints Willis is an historical gem and should be preserved at all costs. If, in the event, the St Clement’s instrument could not justify the cost of replacement then this was a necessary outcome. The Viscount is not yet fully voiced into the building. Some textures seem slightly woolly and the pedal sound does not resonate with sufficient authority. But these, thanks to the wonders of technology, can easily be address, and as our highly competent local organists get to grips with this new addition I am they will explore its capacity and strengths. BH

Monday 22 July 2013

Philip Scriven has become a regular visitor to Hastings but on this occasion he produced something quite different with a full performance of Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony. David Briggs has become a past-master adapting large romantic works for the organ, and this arrangement was by him, originally scaled to the larger range of Gloucester Cathedral. That the Hastings Willis manages the large tonal palate so well is a tribute to its wonderful voicing. The outer movements were particularly successful, the changes in brass and woodwind tone being particularly effective. If the subtleties of the Scherzo proved somewhat too challenging for it, this was more a result of the speed of the action than the playing. Hopefully the Russian students in the audience appreciated both the fine playing and the idiomatic approach.

The first half had given us an eclectic mix, opening with Brewer’s Marche Heroique. Bach’s first Trio Sonata twinkled nicely and we enjoyed both Chuckerbutty’s Paean and Vierne’s Berceuse. Philip Scriven has recorded works for jazz organ and his encore was a gentle jazz improvisation on Be Thou my vision. It proved to be the most convivial item of the evening. Perhaps he should be invited back to give us a whole evening of jazz?

Next week Nigel Ogden entertains. BH

St Mary in the Castle, Hastings, 21 July 2013

With Hastings awash with Pirates, any potential audience for The English Roses had to battle their way through seas of eye-patches and cutlass waving scurvy dogs just to get there. Thankfully St Mary’s was a cool retreat from the rigours of an unexpected heat wave.

Sophie Pullen and Iuno Connolly both have large voices, more than adequate to fill St Mary’s, and took it in turns to sing the lower part in duets, which was occasionally disconcerting. At present Iuno’s voice seems to have the more obvious cutting edge which helps both diction and flexibility of line, while Sophie’s often heavier tone seems more obviously operatic.

The first half of the programme followed the history of English song in roughly chronological order, opening with a duet from Purcell’s King Arthur followed by Not all my torments and Sweeter than roses. If this helped to set the temperament for the afternoon it was two beautiful setting by Dowland that really brought the performance to life, with a carefully crafted rendition of Flow my tears.

Given that both singers are sopranos, it was not always obvious why specific arias were performed by individual singers. Two items from Handel’s Semele might have been more interesting if sung by the same singer in order to demonstrate the emotional differences between the arias. In the event Iuno Connolly gave us a moving O sleep why dost thou leave me while Sophie Pullen launched into the more sprightly Endless pleasure.

Songs by Quilter and Ireland impressed before the first half ended with two fine settings by Britten and an unexpectedly humorous duet by Balfe.

The second half focussed on opera, bringing more duets, including the familiar Flower duet from Lakme and the Barcarolle from Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann. For the solo items, Iuno gave a thrilling account of Donizetti’s Chacun le sait! and Sophie charmed with O mio babbino caro. Just to keep us on our toes, there were two more Handel arias, Sophie giving a warm rendition of Lascia ch’io pianga  and Iuno producing lovely legato lines for Ombra mai fu.

Nancy Cooley accompanied throughout and maintained an excellent balance in what can often be a difficult acoustic.  BH

Holy Trinity Lunchtime Concert   Wednesday June 5   Kenneth Roberts   

Glorious sunshine on Wednesday lunchtime surely tempted everyone towards the beach. Not music-lovers though.  They were hieing towards Holy Trinity Church where the first of 2013’s Wednesday lunchtime concerts featured Hastings’ own latter-day Toscanini ( Tosca who?).  

      Kenneth Roberts is well-known as a conductor, but his presenting and educational activities are probably less familiar.  A taste of these in his programme of French piano music provided his listeners with a musical treat.

      He told how from the Romantic era (1830-1900) onwards  no Fremch composers wrote mammoth works such as the symphonies and operas of Germany’s Beethoven, Wagner, Brahms and the rest.  French musicians tended to work on a more intimate scale – music for the drawingroom rather than the concert-hall or stage.

      Opening with the familiar Debussy’s Clair de Lune Kenneth led us into the Victorian drawing-room with Chaminade’s Automne, one of the few female composers of the past still heard today.  For his set on the theme of nostalgia, Kenneth chose the composer with whm he has a special rapport, Francis Poulenc, with his Pastourelle,   and dance music from the little-known Grovlez and Emmanuel Chabrier, the latter whose orchestral rhapsody Espana  is a TV regular.

      Erik Satie’s Gymnopedies No 1 is one of the many ‘I know the tune but I haven’t a clue what it’s called’ melodies, and further works from Poulenc and Debussy including the latter’s Girl with the Flaxen Hair concluded a delightful and thought-provoking ‘I wish I’d practised more but it was all those scales and arpeggios that put me off’ programme.

      The Deputy Mayor Cllr Bruce Dowling and several professional musicians expressed their pleasure and wished the organisers Good Luck for the series.                          Marrion Wells