REVIEW OF PADDOCK WOOD CHORAL SOCIETY’S CONCERT AT ST ANDREW’S CHURCH,
PADDOCK WOOD, ON SATURDAY 23 JUNE 2018
Last Saturday, the night sky over Paddock Wood held an unusual and vibrant array of red, yellow and orange hues. It was a perfect reflection of the colourful and diverse types of music chosen by Paddock Wood Choral Society for their concert that evening entitled Music for a Summer Evening at St Andrew’s Church.
The evening started with Antonio Vivaldi’s well-loved Gloria which the choir sang with great confidence and enjoyment. A swift change of mood followed with Deep River from Michael Tippet’s Child of our Time spiritual. The choir showed sensitive tuning and good diction in this piece and we look forward to hearing more excerpts from this work by Tippet, together with a performance of Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man, when Paddock Wood Choral join with Cranbrook Choral Society for a joint concert at St Dunstan’s Church, Cranbrook on Saturday 17 November 2018.
The choir’s recently appointed and extremely skilled accompanist, Emma Davis, treated the audience to a delightfully sympathetic and profound solo performance of Frederic Chopin’s Raindrop which was very well received by the audience. Another complete change of mood followed with the choir singing Ralph Vaughan Williams’ arrangement of The Dark Eyed Sailor. Although there were balance issues in this piece, it was performed well and with enthusiasm.
In the first half of the concert, Kevin Ashman, the choir’s enthusiastic, urbane and charming Music Director put down his baton and played three movements from Giuseppe Torelli’s Concerto in D Major on the piccolo trumpet. He later topped this with a brilliant rendition of Joseph Haydn’s Concerto in Eb Major in the second half.
The choir’s performance of modern composer Peter Gritton’s Messiah in Three Minutes brought the first half to an end. This piece is comprised of short excerpts from George Frederick Handel’s well-loved Messiah woven into a complex miscellany of sounds and lyrics. It is a difficult piece to sing and the choir excelled themselves with a laudable performance of this extremely challenging work.
The second half opened with excerpts from some of the music performed at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in May - Eternal Source of Light Divine : A Birthday Ode for Queen Anne with Kevin Ashman again playing his beloved trumpet and Jennifer Jackson from the choir’s alto section providing the expressive solo vocal part. This was followed by If ye love me by Thomas Tallis – where the choir coped well with a sensitive and difficult score.
Emma Davis followed this with an inspiring solo piano performance of I Giorni (The Days) by Ludovico Einaudi. Winding up the evening’s performance was Steal Away – another spiritual from Michael Tippett’s A Child of our Time where the voice of soloist James Corse from the choir’s bass section soared above the choir followed by Just as the Tide was Flowing by Ralph Vaughan Williams and The Long Day Closes by Arthur Sullivan in which the choir felt comfortable and composed.
The choir returned to Antonio Vivaldi’s Gloria by singing his beautiful Domine Fili Unigenite for their final piece of the evening with skill and empathy. The audience left St Andrew’s Church with the beautiful colours and hues of an amazing evening of music mingling with the colourful night sky surrounding them on their journey home. Magical!
PADDOCK WOOD, ON SATURDAY 23 JUNE 2018
Last Saturday, the night sky over Paddock Wood held an unusual and vibrant array of red, yellow and orange hues. It was a perfect reflection of the colourful and diverse types of music chosen by Paddock Wood Choral Society for their concert that evening entitled Music for a Summer Evening at St Andrew’s Church.
The evening started with Antonio Vivaldi’s well-loved Gloria which the choir sang with great confidence and enjoyment. A swift change of mood followed with Deep River from Michael Tippet’s Child of our Time spiritual. The choir showed sensitive tuning and good diction in this piece and we look forward to hearing more excerpts from this work by Tippet, together with a performance of Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man, when Paddock Wood Choral join with Cranbrook Choral Society for a joint concert at St Dunstan’s Church, Cranbrook on Saturday 17 November 2018.
The choir’s recently appointed and extremely skilled accompanist, Emma Davis, treated the audience to a delightfully sympathetic and profound solo performance of Frederic Chopin’s Raindrop which was very well received by the audience. Another complete change of mood followed with the choir singing Ralph Vaughan Williams’ arrangement of The Dark Eyed Sailor. Although there were balance issues in this piece, it was performed well and with enthusiasm.
In the first half of the concert, Kevin Ashman, the choir’s enthusiastic, urbane and charming Music Director put down his baton and played three movements from Giuseppe Torelli’s Concerto in D Major on the piccolo trumpet. He later topped this with a brilliant rendition of Joseph Haydn’s Concerto in Eb Major in the second half.
The choir’s performance of modern composer Peter Gritton’s Messiah in Three Minutes brought the first half to an end. This piece is comprised of short excerpts from George Frederick Handel’s well-loved Messiah woven into a complex miscellany of sounds and lyrics. It is a difficult piece to sing and the choir excelled themselves with a laudable performance of this extremely challenging work.
The second half opened with excerpts from some of the music performed at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in May - Eternal Source of Light Divine : A Birthday Ode for Queen Anne with Kevin Ashman again playing his beloved trumpet and Jennifer Jackson from the choir’s alto section providing the expressive solo vocal part. This was followed by If ye love me by Thomas Tallis – where the choir coped well with a sensitive and difficult score.
Emma Davis followed this with an inspiring solo piano performance of I Giorni (The Days) by Ludovico Einaudi. Winding up the evening’s performance was Steal Away – another spiritual from Michael Tippett’s A Child of our Time where the voice of soloist James Corse from the choir’s bass section soared above the choir followed by Just as the Tide was Flowing by Ralph Vaughan Williams and The Long Day Closes by Arthur Sullivan in which the choir felt comfortable and composed.
The choir returned to Antonio Vivaldi’s Gloria by singing his beautiful Domine Fili Unigenite for their final piece of the evening with skill and empathy. The audience left St Andrew’s Church with the beautiful colours and hues of an amazing evening of music mingling with the colourful night sky surrounding them on their journey home. Magical!