Daily Archives: 7 December, 2018

‘Christemas Past’ with The Telling in candlelight

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St Paul’s Worthing on Wednesday December 19 (8pm)

  • “beautifully borne” Sean Rafferty, BBC Radio 3
  • “sung with perfection that is heart-stopping” Worthing Herald
  • “We flew back over 700 years to the strumming of a harp, a candle’s flicker and exquisite, plaintive song” The Latest

Medieval English and later European carols in a special authentic ambience and period atmosphere in Worthing’s most responsive performing space.

A stimulating eve-of-Christmas vocal event.

Tomorrow (Dec 8), The Telling are live on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Saturday Live’, from 9am. They’ll perform a traditional Catalan carol from Spain (‘El Noi de la Mare’) and an English medieval one (‘Lullay, My Child’). Both will be in their Worthing Concert. 

See this news here: https://mailchi.mp/039d710b8c43/vision-and-christemas-past-on-tour-near-you-269909?e=e2e3e5ec24

If you miss it, catch up here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001gnv

Specialist early music international recording artistes – soprano and mezzo Clare Norburn and Ariane Prussner (Germany) with medieval harpist Kaisa Pulkkinen (Finland)  and some hand percussion – plus the spoken word of TV, radio drama and audio books voice, Patience Tomlinson, in some classic seasonal readings.

Dialogue with the artistes in a short Q&A, and a couple of intriguing and inviting gift stalls that could solve your gift-buying problems – even be a treat for yourself! And a preview of two visits The Telling will make to this venue in March and October.

Special heating measures assured at a venue experiencing boiler problems at the moment!

Tickets from St Paul’s cafe counter or online via here: https://stpaulsworthing.co.uk/blog/event/christemas-past-with-the-telling/

Hear The Telling singing ‘Ther Is No Rose’: https://www.facebook.com/clare.norburn/posts/10156809295807889

Treble Clefs

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St John’s, Hollington, 6 December 2018

Treble Clefs returned to St John’s, Hollington, for a well-supported Christmas concert which encouraged audience participation not just with the carols but with the familiar songs surrounding them.

However, the most impressive parts of the evening came from the less familiar and unexpected items. Whisper! Whisper! was certainly unknown to me as a Christmas Carol but was wonderfully effective and will surely become a standard very soon. This was preceded by a gentle lullaby, Before the marvel of this night, both American settings and both worth getting to know better.

The other surprise was O Holy Night sung by young singers Maisie and Ben. It was one of those spine-tingling moments which we wished could have gone on far longer. The produced splendidly focussed voices, well balanced and accurate, with an emotional intensity which never became sentimental.

The choir had opened with Come to the Celebration before we all sang Joy to the World, which segued into a medley of popular Christmas songs.

Accompanist Stephen Page gave the choir a break when he gave two organ solos – the beautifully reflective This is the truth and a rousing jazz arrangement of The Virgin Mary had a baby boy.

It was good to hear the verse introduction to Winter Wonderland and the cheery Christmas is Here – with its surprising overtones of The Muppet Christmas Carol! –  brought the evening to a fine climax.

Treble Clefs under their ebullient conductor Keith Richardson will certainly make a welcome return next year.

The Class Choir

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Unitarian Church, Wednesday 5 December 2019

The Class Choir, under their enthusiastic director John Cornforth, brought their Christmas Celebration to the intimate surroundings of the Unitarian Church for an evening enhanced with mulled wine, sausage rolls and mince pies.

Warming us up with a rapid rendition of The Grand Old Duke of York they launched into I saw three ships, Wild Mountain Time and Caledonia.  While all their songs are sung in harmony, some are more complex than others, and it was a tribute to their enthusiasm and expertise that they brought off The Carol of the Bells with such finesse and bright precision. This led into the rather sentimental Blessing – made popular by the Celtic Women – and an impressive Jazz Gloria.

We have heard Flying Free from them before but it was none the less welcome and the evening concluded – musically at least – with us all joining in We wish you a merry Christmas.