Sounds and Sweet Airs

The Grade I listed Ullet Road Unitarian Church was a wonderful venue for the latest Liverpool Voice Concert on Friday.

Entitled "Sounds and Sweet Airs" a line from his play "The Tempest", the concert was a celebration of Shakespeare in the 400th anniversary of his death, together with a nod to two other anniversaries. Lesley Bentley, the Artistic Director, dedicated the concert at the start to the people of Nice who were caught up in the tragic events of the previous night.

The concert included some quite dramatic pieces. The most ancient was probably "The Agincourt Carol" a fifteenth century song which is features in the 1944 film of "Henry V" This had a distinct early music sound, quite different from much of the repertoire.

The Vaughan Williams Motet "Valiant for Truth" has been performed by the choir before, but this was the most crisp performance, capturing, for Pilgrim, that moment between life and death, where trumpets sounded for him on the other side.

Most dramatic of all was the powerful "Fanfare for Michaelmas Day" by Sidney Campbell. This sets part of Revelation 12 to music, and portrays the mighty battle in heaven between Michael and the Dragon.  It is spine tingling stuff.

Between each piece there was a short reading from Shakespeare's work by different members of the choir, often on a passage that had inspired the music about to be performed. Two longer passages were read not by choir members but by the church minister Philp Waldron, who proved to be quite a performer.

We enjoyed a performance by one choir member despite not understanding a word. Fede recited a poem from Don Quixote, and his son then provided the English translation. This was to mark the author, Cervantes, who like Shakespeare, died in April 1616.

The other anniversary being marked was the continuing 100 years since World War One. Erik Bichard sang two solos composed by authors who fought in the war. The programme included one other solo number, sang by Kim Ford. These, as most of the choir songs were accompanied by John McHugh on the piano.

Some of the music was by contemporaries of Shakespeare, "It was a lover and his lass" by Thomas Morley, and "Hey Ho, to the Greenwood" by William Byrd.  Others were modern songs from modern adaptations of his works.  This included "Tonight" from "West Side Story" by Bernstein, and "Perfect Day" by Lou Reed. "The Impossible Dream" was the song that followed the Don Quixote reading.

During the later rehearsals, the choir was encouraged to be less choral, some of songs needed to be more gospel, or more folk. Liverpool Voice is perhaps at its best with more choral works, and "Virga Jesse" by Anton Bruckner was an excellent expression of this.

Liverpool Voice rehearses on a Thursday night, and is available to sing at private events. The next events will be concerts at Christmas.

The Ullet Road Unitarian Church web site is Here
The Liverpool Voice Facebook page is Here