Seasonal Concert

It was lovely to see Saddleworth Musical Society performing their 2021 Seasonal Concert. As always, they were impeccably turned out in matt black with touches of red - red bow ties for the gentlemen and a red rose with hypericum berries corsage for the ladies. The programme was very upbeat and we ( the audience) were welcomed to join in with many of the carols - this was done with much gusto and great enthusiasm.

Saddleworth Musical Society were joined by five members of Milnrow Brass Band, it was a fabulous and well thought out collaboration as the brass instruments added a lovely rounded depth behind the choir. The choir themselves have kept on singing via zoom meetings all through lockdown and were in very fine voice, there were two soloist performances during In the Bleak Midwinter, they both portrayed the simple beauty in the words and their meaning with clarity and gentle tone. The concert was compèred by Ian Ball and he had a good rapport with both the audience and the Musical Director Alasdair Gordon, he also was one of two gentlemen that retold the story of the nativity in a very unique and comical way.

Alasdair had an energetic task leading the choir through the rousing programme, a couple of very picky personal points to me were that the sopranos although very enthusiastic, which is a good thing -but at times their enthusiasm and sheer joy at once again performing in front of a real live audience led to a slightly unbalanced sound, and finally, again I think with the sheer joy of performing in front of a real live audience some of the diction was swallowed by the whole choir. It did not detract from the performance and as I said they are two super picky and personal to me points.

I thoroughly enjoyed the performance and very much look forward to seeing you all again very soon.

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