St Mary-in-the-Castle, Hastings, Saturday 15 December 2018
St Mary’s full to the gunnels; Hastings Philharmonic on top form; Marcio’s O Holy Night – it has to be Christmas! But the heart of the evening was subtly different this year with a lot of unaccompanied singing of a more reflective nature after the breezy account of Malcom Archer’s arrangement of Angels from the Realms of Glory. The gently lyrical El Desembre Congelat was followed by John Rutter’s moving arrangement of the spiritual Rise up, shepherd, and follow. Marcio da Silva drew on the strengths of solo voices in the choir not only in the spiritual but also for the opening of In the bleak mid-winter and the voices of the kings in We three kings.
Ding Dong Merrily on High allowed the harmony to crystalize before a fine a cappella version of Mary had a baby. We have become accustomed now to Marcio’s loving rendition of O Holy Night but it still makes an indelible impression and led effortlessly into the section with Guestling-Bradshaw Children’s Choir. They joined all of us for Once in Royal David’s City adding a well-focused treble solo before two favourites of theirs – This Little Light of Mine and The Twelve Days of Christmas. Children from the large audience made their way to the front to join in Away in a Manger before our final carol – O Come all ye Faithful. At key points throughout the evening we all joined in communal carols and it was a pleasure to welcome back Inspiritus Brass with their own approach to carols and Christmas songs. To ensure we didn’t drop off we were encouraged to do all the actions in Snow Waltz – and quite right to.
Before the concert proper started we heard three young violinists (one of them very, very young!) and at the end Marcio spoke about the establishment of a Violin school and scholarships for Young Singers to work with Hastings Philharmonic. With the continuing dearth of school music, community involvement is ever more important and any interested singers can find further details at www.hastingsphilharmonic.com