{"id":5746,"date":"2019-12-08T11:58:54","date_gmt":"2019-12-08T11:58:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larkreviews.co.uk\/?p=5746"},"modified":"2019-12-08T11:58:54","modified_gmt":"2019-12-08T11:58:54","slug":"carols-christmas-music-for-choir-and-audience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/?p=5746","title":{"rendered":"Carols & Christmas Music for Choir and Audience"},"content":{"rendered":"
Bexhill Choral Society; <\/strong><\/span><\/h6>\n
St Barnabas, Bexhill, 7 December 2019<\/strong><\/span><\/h6>\n

Even Scrooge would have warmed to Christmas with this presentation.\u00a0 It was a delightful mixture of the familiar, and not too familiar Carols, but with originality too. Yes, you may have to read that twice – I will explain later. \u00a0But for now, it definitely wasn\u2019t the all too familiar Carol Concert. \u00a0It was different and fun. Conductor Ken Roberts put together a splendidly varied programme. \u00a0Ken has a particular sense of humour evident in his talks and presentation. \u00a0\u00a0The familiar Carols were sung by the choir paying attention to dynamics, crisp or melodious when needed. \u00a0There were several choir pieces that were unfamiliar, \u2018Presentation of Christ in the Temple\u2019<\/em>, \u2018Resonemus Laudibus\u2019<\/em> and \u2018Ring out Wild Bells\u2019<\/em>. These must have had their difficulties but the choir seemed to have mastered them. \u00a0Sussannah \u00a0Appleyard has a very light distinctive easy-to-listen to soprano voice and she entertained us enchantingly with six pieces. One extra than the programme, but it was welcome.\u00a0 I particularly liked \u2018Winter<\/em>\u2019 (words by Shakespeare<\/em>) and it was obvious she did too.\u00a0 The Cinque Ports Brass Ensemble accompanied the choir, but unfortunately, and naturally as is brass bands want, perhaps a little too loudly at times.\u00a0 But you could not fault their talent and enthusiasm, and it added forgivably, to the Christmas \u2018feel\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0 The very talented Nigel Howard gave support on Organ and piano. \u00a0Conductor Ken Roberts, so he told us, had been on a Cruise to the Caribbean and had met with a band. This inspired him to set some familiar Carols as Calypsos. It was a delightful arrangement and was the originality I wrote of above. Ken also accompainied \u2018Frosty the Snowman<\/em>\u2019 with his saxophone, which delighted and entertained the audience immensely. On a sour note, the audience participation had all the gusto of a left over sprout. I looked around me at one point and observed great hulking men who would, I am sure with the right lubrication, sing loudly and raucously, but who were closed mouthed. It is such a pity we no longer sing.\u00a0 With that audience we could have raised the roof. Oh, and I did like the anti-secular insertion of readings from St. Luke\u2019s Gospel, but then of course I would. \u00a0I am biased. Thanks to all who took part in a delightful entertaining \u00a0\u2018Christmas\u2019 evening. Revd Bernard Crosby<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bexhill Choral Society; St Barnabas, Bexhill, 7 December 2019 Even Scrooge would have warmed to Christmas with this presentation.\u00a0 It was a delightful mixture of the familiar, and not too familiar Carols, but with originality too. Yes, you may have … 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\/5746"}],"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=5746"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5747,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5746\/revisions\/5747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}