CANDLELIT CHRISTMAS CONCERT

Writtle Singers in All Saints' Church

12.12.10

Celebrating Christmas and Advent this year with just one concert, but with two choirs, two readings and two organ solos from accompanist Simon Harvey.

I enjoyed his playing of the reflective Brahms, and the poem by Clive Sansom which has the Innkeeper's wife recalling the night of the Nativity.

Chelmsford Youth Choir, conducted by Tony Chew, gave us Bob Chilcott's Midwinter, a lively Baby Boy, and John Gardner's witty version of The Holly and the Ivy, supported in this last by the Writtle Singers. Resplendent in their festive waistcoats, they had a striking carol arrangement, too – Malcolm Williamson's Ding Dong Merrily.

They began with Britten's antiphonal Hymn to the Virgin, with the solo quartet in the darkness behind us. Lullay My Liking had an impressive range of solo voices, Lully Lulla an excellent soloist, and the choir, directed by Christine Gwynn, was at its intimate best in Howells' Little Door.