CHORAL FOUNDATION CONCERT

John Rutter at Chelmsford Cathedral

27.02.08

John Rutter, Britain's most successful composer of church music, was in Chelmsford Cathedral last week to conduct his Canticle of the Heavenly City, commissioned by the Dean, Peter Judd, for Iffley Parish Church. It is beautifully phrased piece, sung here by the Cathedral Choir with accompaniment from harp and two flutes.

Rutter also conducted the last work on the programme, Parry's triumphal Blest Pair of Sirens. The Cathedral Choir were joined by the Consort and the Voluntary Choir, with a full orchestra, making an impressively joyful sound.

This unique event, which included performers from all the schools involved in the Cathedral's Choral Foundation, began with the orchestra, KEGS and CCHS united, under Tim Worrall, playing the Vaughan Williams English Folk Song Suite. These young players sounded wonderful in the Cathedral acoustic, with some impressive brass playing, and especially telling woodwind solos.

Cantatrici, a chamber choir from the County High School, directed by Felicity Wright, sang two all too brief pieces, Gibbons' Silver Swan and Stanford's Blue Bird - with piano accompaniment, for some unfathomable reason.

Robert Poyser conducted the Choir in Naylor's Voc Dicentis, with Charles Palotai and Matthew Butt as soloists, and the combined forces in Schubert's Mass in G; the Gloria and the Hosannas were particularly successful. The soloists here were Tom Robson, Isabella Gage and Simon Warne.

This was a superb showcase for the talent based around our Cathedral, and it was good to see it so well attended.

ALBERT NOBBS

Reform Theatre at the Cramphorn Theatre

27.02.08

Albert Nobbs has enough on his plate with retirement and cholesterol, without bereavement to worry about.

Gordon Steel's hilarious piece plays like a sitcom, with some super one-liners and recognisable characters.

In Martin Derbyshire's solid front-room set, Albie sits in his favourite chair, a touching mixture of grumpy and vulnerable. This was a memorable performance from Roger Butcher, so good in Dead Fish from the same company last year. Counting the flowers on the wallpaper, flirting, cursing, talking to the dead and, movingly, listing the things he'll never do again.

Martina Clements was his clairvoyant wife Connie, back from the dead Blithe Spirit style to help his cope with life as a widower, and Ruth Carr gave a couple of character studies as the two neighbours: Alice, with her comedy teeth and her flatulence, and Rose, an old flame whose sympathy helps Albert over the worst.

Keith Hukin directed with a sure sense of style, with Sinatra on the soundtrack and no opportunity missed to raise a laugh or tug at the heartstrings.

JR was at the Mercury last week for The Late Edwina Black ...

definitely a period piece and not that easy to bring to believable life. The poster is emblazoned with photos of Stephen McCann (Emmerdale) and Stephen Beckett (Coronation Street) .. the very mention of the 'soaps' should have warned me in the first place. I detest this sort of 'publicity' and even though it does seem to get bums on seats I react badly to it ! Mind you, the two 'named actors' did respectable jobs but I felt they were let down on the technical front. Sound was 'muffled' with too obviously 'recorded everything' .. the doorbell sounded totally false as did the door slams. Now how difficult is it to have a door slam and a front door bell ? Then lighting was barely OK .. when it's supposed to be raining outside you shouldn't have a sunshiny effect on the 'backdrop' - this stayed the same most of the way through ! And from where I was sitting it looked as if there was a coffee pot on the garden wall - I tried desperately to see if this was a reflection of something on stage, but nope, it wasn't ! Highly puzzled by that ! Then I could see light through a join in the scsnery ! How bad is that ? On the sound effect aspect it was supposed to be raining outside and yet the sound effect was 'wind' .. there are SO MANY sound effect cds that this is an unforgivable 'error' What was really disappointing was that there were more in the audience than for the BRILLIANT 'Brief Lives' last week .. all because someone has heard of 'Emmerdale' and 'Coronation Street' and Roy Dotrice has been out of the public eye for a while !

CAROUSEL

CAODS at the Civic Theatre

25.02.08

Sentimental, hard-hitting and packed with tunes – Carousel is hard to beat for traditional musical theatre.

Ray Jeffery's latest production for CAODS was lovely to look at, well sung and meticulously choreographed, right from the moment the factory girls left their looms for the lure of the fairground.

Billy the barker was Stuart Woolner – “what a handsome fella he was...” physically just right, with a powerful, true voice. Not the most subtle interpreter of the role, but a magnetic actor. His Julie was Claire Carr, whose lovely voice was well used in If I Loved You; her girly duet with Carrie [Christie Booth] was a highlight of the show. Angela Broad made an excellent Nettie, carrying two of the biggest numbers, and Jonathan Davis relished his role as a relaxed, repulsive Jigger. Mr Snow, with his loud suit and louder laugh, was brilliantly played by Kevin Abrey, and there were cameos from veterans Leo McGiff and Peter Smith.

Men in gumboots, girls with brooms, a Fellini-esque finale all in white: the production was full of nice touches and effective groupings; the death of Billy, beautifully lit, with Nettie and Mrs Mullin [Caroline Escott], just one example.

A good orchestra, and confident choral singing, under MD Andrew Denyer, made this a quality evening's entertainment - polished and professional evening on this Monday night !

SOUND IN BRASS

Handbells at Chelmsford Cathedral

23.02.08

Sound in Brass are one of the leading handbell teams in the UK. Based in Springfield, they have played the Albert Hall and the Purcell Room, and made several recordings.

Last week they came to the Cathedral, appropriately raising funds for the Development Appeal, which includes restoration plans for the church bells.

A large, enthusiastic audience enjoyed a remarkably wide variety of music, beginning with their signature piece – Whistling Rufus – and culminating in a spirited tour de force, Strauss's Radetsky March.

They included just one piece written for this peculiar musical line-up; for the rest, ingenious arrangers had taken favourites and filleted them for the dozen or so players and their 128 bells. A Bach Pastorale worked well, as did a nicely swinging version of the Birth of the Blues. Simple works – Walking in the Air, the Berceuse from Fauré's Dolly Suite – proved effective; among the more ambitious attempts were Midnight in Moscow and Ketelby's evocative Persian Market, complete with cymbal !

As the Dean remarked at the end, there is a strong visual element to this art, the balletic swings of the bells all timed precisely to the beat.