{"id":992,"date":"2013-05-12T17:51:05","date_gmt":"2013-05-12T16:51:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larkreviews.co.uk\/?p=992"},"modified":"2013-05-12T17:51:05","modified_gmt":"2013-05-12T16:51:05","slug":"an-afternoon-of-sacred-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/?p=992","title":{"rendered":"An Afternoon of Sacred Song"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Gabrielle Manoukian, Bernard Perkins &amp; Stephen Page<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">St Leonard\u2019s Parish Church, 12 May 2013<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The music may have been familiar and popular, but this is not a problem if it is well sung and presented in a relaxed manor. Soprano Gabrielle Manoukian and Bass-Baritone Bernard Perkins opened with Franck\u2019s <i>Panis Angelicus<\/i> and during the course of the afternoon came together again for Elgar\u2019s <i>Ave Verum<\/i> and an arrangement of Schubert\u2019s <i>Ave Maria. <\/i>The generous acoustic makes the voices bloom, which requires great clarity and tact with balance, both of which the singers were able to provide with ease.<\/p>\n<p>In solo items Gabrielle particularly impressed with Vivaldi\u2019s <i>Nulla in Mondo<\/i> which included delightful ornamentation in the second verse. It was interesting to hear Faure\u2019s <i>Pie Jesus <\/i>with the fuller voice of a soprano rather than the thinner tones of a treble. Her final solo, <i>I know that my Redeemer liveth<\/i> proved moving and effective.<\/p>\n<p>Bernard opened with <i>The Holy City <\/i>and a powerful reading of the <i>Quoniam <\/i>from Rossini\u2019s <i>Petit Messe Sollonelle. Sheep may safely graze <\/i>is not often heard in its vocal arrangement and so was all the more welcome, while <i>The Trumpet shall sound <\/i>\u00a0brought flair to his final item.<\/p>\n<p>We were required to join in with <i>I vow to thee, my country<\/i> and <i>Jerusalem<\/i> \u2013 not that we had any difficulty doing so \u2013 before the singers ended their concert with <i>Ar hyd y nos<\/i> and Rutter\u2019s <i>The Lord Bless you and Keep you \u2013 <\/i>a gentle and warming conclusion before we made our way out for a cream tea.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout, Stephen Page had accompanied with panache, from both organ and piano, providing a solo item in the form of an arrangement of Saint-Saens\u2019 <i>The Swan.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>A most pleasing afternoon and well attended \u2013 more please? BH<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gabrielle Manoukian, Bernard Perkins &amp; Stephen Page St Leonard\u2019s Parish Church, 12 May 2013 The music may have been familiar and popular, but this is not a problem if it is well sung and presented in a relaxed manor. Soprano &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/?p=992\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/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\/992"}],"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=992"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":994,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992\/revisions\/994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}