Spring Concert , Stage, Screen and Choral Classics

Saddleworth Musical Society members came out dressed in their concert blacks adorned with a turquoise corsage for the ladies and a turquoise bow tie for the gentlemen, it is visually striking and looks very polished and put together.

The Musical Director for this concert was Mark Goggins – a very well known and respected name and reputation in these parts, he had put together a concert of two halves - the first consisted of classical choral pieces, the second were stage and screen classics. “Locus Iste” by Anton Bruckner was performed by the musical society with no accompaniment, they sang with such light and shade and were kept in perfect time by Mark. They followed with three different versions of “Ave Verum Corpus” (William Bryd, Karl Jenkins and W A Mozart), I personally found it very interesting that they seemed to have a better connection with the Karl Jenkins version. The second half brought us Phantom of the Opera suite, they performed it well. “Hymn To The Fallen” from Saving Private Ryan was beautifully performed, there was delicacy and control in the notes sung. A lone trumpet played by Freddie Ball with piano by Louise Brennan added a poignant background for the notes to emanate from. I did enjoy the Les Miserables selection, it was nice to see some people step out and perform a solo. There was real characterisation in their performances, Ian Ball as M. Thenadier was superb, he committed fully and it was obvious that he was enjoying himself , Eleanor Ford as Mme. Thenadier missed her starting note but did a good recovery with almost speaking her bits – it worked with her character. Martin Bradbury as Valjean was excellent – great projection and stage presence. It was a fantastic rousing “Do You Hear The People Sing” from the ensemble that brought the concert to a close with all the separate vocal parts being heard clearly as they melded together.

Both myself and my guest enjoyed the concert. Thank you for inviting me, I look forward to seeing you all again soon.

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