Spring Concert

What a fantastic concert this was with its varied mix of music. As always Harry Butterworth had worked hard with the choir with some difficult pieces and put together a fabulous orchestra. The programme in the first half gave us Finlandia by Sibelius and Magnificat by John Rutter and had songs from Show Boat in the second half.

The Finlandia piece was beautiful, very energetic and stirring to begin with a calmer gentle tune later on played superbly by the orchestra. It was a wonderful start to the evening.

The text of the Magnificat comes from the Gospel of St Luke, six of the movements were sung and all in Latin which sounded lovely. The choir all in black with a turquoise contrast sounded wonderful with beautiful harmonies and well rounded tones across the six different movements.  The Soprano Soloist was beautifully performed by Mirriam Lawton

Both these pieces which are not heard often on the amateur circuit were beautifully performed by voices and instruments alike.

The second half was narrated by Martin Roche who amused us all with his observations and history of the Kern and Hammerstein Show Boat. For obvious reasons this show is now a difficult show to perform but is brilliant for concert shows and the choir and orchestra excelled again.

The four soloists sounded wonderful with Mirriam Lawton as Magnolia and Anita Stuttard as Julie. Brent Andrews was Ravenal and Martin Bradbury took the role of Joe and gave us the iconic Ol’Man River.  Vocally all four performed with lovely vocals on numbers such as “Make Believe”, “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” “Bill” and “After the Ball” where the audience were encouraged to join in.

I thoroughly enjoyed the evening as the music was varied and challenging to perform but wonderful on the ear. Well done to all involved but especially to Harry for putting the programme together and rehearsing the soloists and choir to such a high standard with such difficult pieces.

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