Daily Archives: 20 May, 2019

Melodians Summer Concerts 2019

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Come and help us celebrate 25 years of the Melodians. We will be singing some old favourites and some all new items from pop to classical and folk, including music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Bach, Queen and Morten Lauridsen. You can hear the concert on Saturday 22nd June, 7.00pm at the Emmanuel Centre, Battle. Tickets £7 in advance or £9 on the door. Or on Saturday 13th July, 7.00pm at St John’s Pevensey Road, St Leonards on Sea. TN38 0RD. all proceeds will be going to St Michael’s Hospice.

Tickets £7 on the door.

When the Melodians was first formed we all agreed that any money raised from our concerts should go to a local charity. It didn’t take long for us to decide that St Michael’s Hospice was the perfect choice. Several choir members had had personal experience of the Hospices’ care and we were aware that many of us would go on to require hospice services for either our family members or ourselves at one time or another. Many of our choir members have gone on to directly benefit from hospice care themselves over the last 25 years. Several of our current members also volunteer with the Hospice in various roles.

The Melodians have traditionally put on 2-3 concerts a year.  We have always aimed to keep ticket prices very low to ensure concerts are accessible to a wide audience, we then encourage our patrons to dig deep and show their appreciation by filling our hospice buckets as they leave.  We are grateful for the support of hospice representatives who attend our concerts and describe the wide-ranging role of St Michael’s to our audiences.
We are very lucky that the Melodians expenses are minimal.  Members pay termly fees for their music and our venue hire fees so that we don’t have to take any proceeds from concerts to pay for these.  For the first 18 years we met every week in the home of our musical director’s parents, Les and Yvonne Pembery.  They carefully squeezed as many chairs as possible into their conservatory – once we were in it was very difficult getting out!  Our musical director, John Pembery, has led the choir for the last 25 years, arranging and composing our music.  The choir is very grateful to him for giving so much of his time to do this and it means we can generally pass on all ticket proceeds along with the donations straight to the hospice.
We are very proud to say we are part of the Melodians.  We love spending time with our musical family and enjoy all the mental and physical health benefits that singing with others can bring.
Raising money for such an amazing charity at the same time is the icing on the cake for us.
We are aiming to reach a £25,000 fundraising target in celebration of their anniversary. All profits from the event are donated to the Hospice.

Maidstone Symphony Orchestra

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Mote Hall, 18 May 2019

Tom Poster is a distinctive pianist. His account of the Schumann concerto was full of warmth and verve especially in the flamboyant third movement. What made this performance exceptionally memorable, though, was his sensitive rendering of the pianissimo passages which had the entire audience listening spellbound probably in incredulity that anyone could play the piano so softly. An accomplished speaker, he then gave us a perfectly judged  Clara Schumann nocturne, having explained that she is “in” all of Robert’s music as well as having given over a thousand recitals herself. How appropriate, Poster also observed, to play music by both Schumanns in Mental Health Week.

The rest of the programme was upbeat, dance focused and Russian.  We began with the orchestral version of Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor complete with lots of attention to dramatic crescendi with some attractive quiet passages interspersed with tension especially from busy, rhythmic strings.

After the interval came the Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances. It’s a big play by any standards but Brian Wright grabbed it by the horns to good effect. The driving rhythms of the first movement and the lilting lyrical minor key work in the second were particularly attractive. Of course this 1940 piece is a bit of a percussion showcase – including xylophone, glockenspiel, tubular bells and gong along with bass drum, timps and various other things – and the six players here did a spectacular job.

This well attended event was the orchestra’s annual charity concert. His Honour Jeremy Carey DL spoke briefly at the beginning and thanked MSO for supporting his chosen charity HearSay which works with local children and families affected by the Autistic Spectrum. It was a rousing and very successful end to the 2018/19 season. I look forward to the first concert in the 109th season on 12 October.

Susan Elkin

 

 

SWEENEY TODD: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

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Renaissance Theatre Company, St Mary-in-the-Castle, Hastings 16th-18th May 2019

A Stephen Sondheim musical is not your average choice if you are an amateur theatre group, but then Renaissance Theatre Company is not your average amateur theatre group! Begun as a positive response to two very tragic situations, Renaissance soon established a reputation for staging quality performances of a range of musicals. Over ten years it has also managed to raise an incredible £33,000 for St Michael’s Hospice & the Shazzie Sparkle Trust (raising funds for the Brain & Spine Foundation). Whilst this fundraising is most admirable and one of the driving motivations behind the company I will now focus on the quality of the performance itself.

From the outset the audience were drawn in to “attend the tale of Sweeney Todd” as the grim but entrancing story unfolded before our eyes and ears, brought to life by an energetic and dedicated cast. Many of the cast have taken leading roles in the past to great acclaim. One of these is Steve Corke who was scarily believable as Sweeney. Whether singing solo, in duet or serenading his “friends” (his shaving blades and chair), speaking, shouting or bounding around the stage he gave of his all! Equally committed and characterful was Kim Sutton as Mrs Lovett, the pie-maker. There were some hilarious interactions with Todd and very physical comedy in the pie-shop as well as great singing and some marvellously manipulative dialogue. The chemistry between the two main characters was superb, seen to great effect in the two songs, Priest and By the sea.

Tyler Sargent’s Anthony and Ruby Edwards’ Johanna also made a very sweet, innocent young couple as well as demonstrating their lovely singing voices singly and together. Maxine Roach brought great empathy to her role as the Beggar Woman – at times seemingly deranged, and at others showing great insight, again with great singing when required. Pirelli was brought to life with great panache and humour by David Baxter and brought some fun interaction with the audience and other members of the cast.

Charlie Mepham was very lovable as Toby, a character that has to display a number of facets of personality as the story develops. He showed great presence as well as handling a difficult song very effectively.

Reggie Regelous’ Judge Turpin was suitably haughty and, at times, creepy, and like his Beadle, Mick Woodhams, a character that commanded attention at each return. Mick also gave a humorous but surprisingly tender rendition of songs as he “played” the harmonium.

A number of scenes demanded huge effort from the diverse chorus. They were at all times totally committed, in character, and adding small details of movement and interaction which add so much to any performance. Sondheim’s music demands some tricky technical performances and chorus members often have to behave more like soloists as they sing countermelodies at odds with other characters around them. It was particularly pleasing to see a range of ages included in the chorus.

Another hallmark of a Renaissance production is the superb backstage and preparatory work. Led by Andy Gill (Musical Director/Trumpet) the small but very capable band delivered top class performances throughout. Again, this music is not easy and demands so much from singers and instrumentalists. A daunting prospect for an amateur group, perhaps, but no problems in delivery here!

A very effective set had been constructed incorporating the ominous and ever-present oven door (revealing its full horror only at the end of the show!) The barber’s chair was fully operational with the ability to quickly despatch its freshly dead occupants to the cellar and the effects of blood on the neck as each victim met his end was suitably grisly. Sound and lighting was well balanced and enhanced the action.

I thoroughly enjoyed my evening and would like to congratulate director, Mark Evans, Andy Gill and all those involved on stage and off for a first class production. Much has been made lately about the resurgence in talented artistes  coming to Hastings to perform but we must not lose sight of the tremendous wealth of talent resident here in our local area, building on the amateur traditions that have been so much a part of Hastings & St Leonards for so long.

Do please look out for future productions by this company and do all you can to support our local talented performers and the very worthwhile causes they, in turn, support.

Stephen Page