CANDLELIGHT
CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR
Chelmsford
Singers in Chelmsford Cathedral
15.12.2012
A
Christmas present from the Singers to the City, gift-wrapped in
sparkling candlelight.
Spectacular
it certainly was, thanks in large measure to the contribution of
Westminster Brass, who gave us some splendid arrangements of seasonal
favourites, from a medieval Pat-a-Pan to Leroy Anderson's Sleigh
Ride, with party poppers obbligato.
They
also played magnificent fanfares for Hark The Herald and O Come All
Ye Faithful, in which the audience joined. We were also cajoled into
the much more challenging Rutter arrangement of I Saw Three Ships,
and then Wenceslas and The Twelve Days of Christmas.
The
brass players, and percussion, were to the fore in the central work –
Rutter's Gloria, with soloist soprano Beverley Lockyer, and beautiful
playing from Jacob Ewens, this year's Organ Scholar. The Singers,
under their new director, James Davy, gave a nuanced, energetic
performance; they shone in three contrasting Peter Warlock carols,
and in the gentle "wild card" – Sund's A Child Is Born,
sung in the original Swedish.
A
shmaltzy "White Christmas" and "A Merry Christmas"
rounded off an enjoyable evening, innovative and refreshingly varied.
More
innovation for Christmas 2013, when we're promised Duffy and
Manning's Manchester Carols.
