{"id":3322,"date":"2016-12-12T09:16:13","date_gmt":"2016-12-12T09:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larkreviews.co.uk\/?p=3322"},"modified":"2016-12-12T09:16:13","modified_gmt":"2016-12-12T09:16:13","slug":"bexhill-choral-society-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/?p=3322","title":{"rendered":"Bexhill Choral Society"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carols and Christmas Music for Choir and Audience<\/span><\/h1>\n

St Augustine, Bexhill, Saturday 10 December 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n

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A larger audience than expected meant that some did not have the words for the carols \u2013 not that that seemed to deter our singing, and we were certainly in good voice to join with Bexhill Choral Society for their traditional Christmas Concert.<\/p>\n

The unexpected item this year was a complete performance of Britten\u2019s A Ceremony of Carols<\/i> with its beautiful harp accompaniment – written originally for Osian Ellis in 1942 – played here with great musicality by Heather Wrighton. Britten\u2019s score is certainly challenging in its tessitura, written originally for boys\u2019 voices, but the choir attacked it with aplomb and were ably supported by soprano Claire Williamson. The opening and closing plainsong sections were particularly effective together with the positive impact of This little babe<\/i> and the limpid delicacy of the harp interlude which lies at the heart of the work.<\/p>\n

It was not quite \u2018all downhill from here\u2019 as Ken Roberts would have us believe for the opening O Come, O Come Emmanuel<\/i> of the second half was most beautifully phrased and gently intoned. Before that we had heard Howard Goodall\u2019s familiar setting of the 23rd<\/sup> Psalm \u2013 and how much better it sounds out of context! \u2013 and the Shepherd\u2019s Farewell <\/i>from Berlioz L\u2019enfance du Christ<\/i>, plus two arrangements from Ken Roberts himself; a Caribbean Christmas <\/i>\u00a0for brass and wind, and a rousing rendition of Frosty the Snowman.<\/i><\/p>\n

The second half brought Bob Chilcott\u2019s charming Sparrows\u2019 Carol <\/i>and another arrangement by Leddington Wright, this time of See Amid the Winter\u2019s Snow. <\/i><\/p>\n

Many choirs have a dearth of male voices so it was particularly pleasing to hear the men alone in Holst\u2019s arrangement of Personent Hodie. <\/i><\/p>\n

The final items rolled gently down through Ding Dong Merrily <\/i>and Little Donkey<\/i> to Past Three O\u2019clock<\/i> \u2013 the only John Rutter in this year\u2019s programme \u2013 to a Christmas Medley of four popular Christmas songs. Given the age range of the audience, most of us knew these \u2013 but I wonder for how much longer?!<\/p>\n

The next event \u00a0will be Handel\u2019s Messiah<\/i> at the De La Warr Pavilion on Saturday 6 May 2017. www.bexhillchoral.org.uk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carols and Christmas Music for Choir and Audience St Augustine, Bexhill, Saturday 10 December 2016 A larger audience than expected meant that some did not have the words for the carols \u2013 not that that seemed to deter our singing, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3322"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3322"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3324,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3322\/revisions\/3324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}