Christmas concert 2023
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On Friday 15th December, at St Peter'sChurch, Walgrave, we sang Charpentier's Messe de Minuit pour Noël. Some of us remember doing it in 2013. It is a lovely setting of the Latin Mass, intended for the midnight service on Christmas Eve and has the theme of a traditional French Carol running through it. We were privileged to have two organ soloists, Richard Dunster-Sigtermans on the main church organ and Ian on his own small organ while simultaneously conducting us. The combination of these with Corinne Malitskie on cello made a delightful accompaniment, and we all enjoyed singing this lively work.
We followed with a set of beautiful unaccompanied 20th century motets for Christmas by Poulenc: O magnum mysterium, Quem vidistis, Videntes stellam, and Hodie Christus natus est. They describe four different aspects of the nativity story - the animals in the stable, the shepherds' vision, the wise men following the star, and a song of joy. We have sung some of them before. Rounding off a French theme, the choir sang four carols of French origin: A maiden most gentle, Il est né le divin enfant, Quelle est cette odeur agréable?, and The shepherds' farewell (by Berlioz). As usual there were plenty of carols for the audience to join in. |
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Afterwards Ian reported back to us -
Well done all for a great concert last night, a lovely atmosphere, and a nice friendly, happy audience! I hope you enjoyed it as much as me!
I loved doing the Charpentier, and it felt buoyant and dancing, the odd tentative entry, of course, but spirited, and with the tremendous complement of cello and portative organ, great to have Richard and Corinne on board! The Poulenc I thought was arguably the best we’d done it, and was a great set to work on, a challenge, of course, but very rewarding. We would probably have benefited from another couple of rehearsals on it, but that’s always the case!
And the other carols were fun, we almost nailed the ending of Il Est né!…and the Carter [A maiden most gentle] was a sparkling finish.
I’d like also to thank our soloists/semichorus singers for doing a great job, thanks Sue, Liz, Pam and Emily, Ted, Steve and Ian. To Katie, Pam, the committee and everyone for their help in organising the church, etc, and to Kate for doing the programme despite printing glitches!…
And what a lovely way to round off the evening, a delicious meal, thanks to all the providers and helpers, and of course Katie once more for letting us loose in her house!
Well done all for a great concert last night, a lovely atmosphere, and a nice friendly, happy audience! I hope you enjoyed it as much as me!
I loved doing the Charpentier, and it felt buoyant and dancing, the odd tentative entry, of course, but spirited, and with the tremendous complement of cello and portative organ, great to have Richard and Corinne on board! The Poulenc I thought was arguably the best we’d done it, and was a great set to work on, a challenge, of course, but very rewarding. We would probably have benefited from another couple of rehearsals on it, but that’s always the case!
And the other carols were fun, we almost nailed the ending of Il Est né!…and the Carter [A maiden most gentle] was a sparkling finish.
I’d like also to thank our soloists/semichorus singers for doing a great job, thanks Sue, Liz, Pam and Emily, Ted, Steve and Ian. To Katie, Pam, the committee and everyone for their help in organising the church, etc, and to Kate for doing the programme despite printing glitches!…
And what a lovely way to round off the evening, a delicious meal, thanks to all the providers and helpers, and of course Katie once more for letting us loose in her house!
