Deck the Hall

A warm and appreciative audience filled the baronial hall at the Ullet Road Unitarian Church on Friday, to enjoy the Christmas Celebration hosted by Liverpool Voice.

The evening was entitled ‘Deck the Hall’ and this was the song that got the evening off to a brisk start.  The programme moved on to ‘Wassail’ which turned out be be quite a theme for the first half. There were no less than three wassailing songs in all, and a reading that explained the two wassailing traditions - singing door to door round the village; and blessing the apple trees with toast. In the Gloucestershire Wassail, a traditional carol collected by Vaughan Williams, the verses were sung by three men in cloth caps enjoying the odd swig of ale from a wassail tankard.

Before this there were some serious carols, including the ‘Angel’s Carol’ by John Rutter, and one that was possibly the high point of the evening, ‘The Snow’ by Edward Elgar set to a poem by his wife Alice. For this piece, definitely seasonal but not actually about Christmas, the choir and piano accompanist were joined by three further musicians on violin flute and cello. It added up to a rich performance of a beautiful piece.

Ian & Lucy Gilchrist accompanied several pieces throughout the evening, Ian swapping between the flute and the double bass.  As well as Sophia on violin for ‘The Snow’, they were joined at points by Martin on the concertina, and Trombone, and Elspeth on accordion.

The trombone made an appearance for ‘While shepherds watched’ not to the traditional tune, but ‘Cranbrook’, a tune perhaps best known as ‘On Ilkley Moor bar tat’. It was a lot of fun.

Other than verses sung by various choir members, Andrea, Corrine, Erik, Jo, Lucas, Martin, Tim,  and Brenda and Jan later in the medley, there was just one solo piece, 'Babe of Bethlehem' sung by Kim Ford.

The first half was rounded off by the arrival of Santa Claus, who regaled the audience with the twelve days of Christmas, joined by the choir for just one line in each verse - ‘Five Gold Rings’

Fortified by mulled wine and mince pies served during the interval by Santa (Phil Waldron, the Unitarian church minister) and his helpers, and warmed by the real fire in the fire place, the audience took their seats for the second half, which got off to a crisp start with ‘Ding Dong Merrily on High’. Next came ‘Gaudete’ for which John McHugh, the accompanist picked up his guitar.

The Conductor and Choir Artistic Director, Lesley Bentley, introduced each piece, often with a brief description of its origin and background.

Just as in the first half, there was a single reading, this time an extract from a poem by Carol Ann Duffy about the Christmas day truce between the trenches in World War One, which introduced ‘Silent Night’ with the first verse sung, as in the poem, in German.

The audience joined in towards the end of the evening, with the Christmas songs medley, Jingle Bells, Winter Wonderland and the like, and with O Come All Ye Faithful, before the final number ‘We wish you a Merry Christmas’ - a rousing ending to a wonderful evening.

Liverpool Voice rehearses on Thursday Evenings in South Liverpool and the Artistic Director is Lesley Bentley, formerly Director of Arts College at Notre Dame Catholic College for the Arts. Choir members have a range of musical ability training and experience, Rehearsals are friendly and purposeful. The choir is always looking out for new members, although you may be asked to delay joining shortly before a performance, or to maintain a balance of voices. Currently here is a need for tenors and basses. The contact details for potential members or for performance enquiries is 07901349080 or info@liverpoolvoice.com

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

November 14 Arts Cafe

The latest in the series of Arts Cafe Evenings hosted by Liverpool Voice at Sefton Park Cricket Club was an outstanding success last night.

Such is the reputation that these evenings have generated in the past that there was a packed audience, so much so that the bar staff asked people to bring their empties to the bar as there was little room for them to move between the tables to collect them.

The choir kicked off the evening singing "Wassail" a mid-winter song celebrating the apple tree in expectation of good cider next year, before moving on to the popular song "Moon River". The choir returned at intervals throughout the evening, but there was rich fare from individual choir members, ensembles or friends of the choir.

Chris Keogh, whose brother Sean sings tenor in the choir, is a talented pianist, and entertained us well, first with a beautiful piece by Ravel, and then a piece of his own composition. We very much enjoyed the fruits of his study at Aberdeen university. Later his brother Sean sat at the keyboard and sang a song of his own composition, and a Christmas song by the Chieftains. A versatile singer, very different style to what we sing in the choir.

Brenda Connor, who sings alto in the choir sang two jazz numbers, which were well received. Also outstanding was the piano accompaniment, by John McHugh, who also accompanied the choir throughout the evening. 

Erik Bichard sang a setting of Houseman's poem 'A Shropshire Lad' by Butterworth, and later in the evening he was joined by Denise Owen as they sang a duet from a Mozart opera. Sung in German, and very beautiful.

We were joined by friends from Widnes and Warrington, Chris and Cath, who came with 12 string guitar and Ukulele, and sang numbers in both halves of the evening, including the 1964 song "Where have all the flowers gone" by Pete Seeger. 

Liverpool Voice performs some classical repertoire, and "Hodie" by Sweelinck, a sixteenth century composer, showcased some of this.  It also introduced the Christmas theme, which was followed up by "Carol of the Bells" before the break brought an opportunity for the audience to refresh their glasses at the bar.

The lighter side of the repertoire resumed after the break with a beautiful setting of "Over the Rainbow" followed by a new one for the choir "Unforgettable"

Toward the end the pre Christmas atmosphere returned with a round "Christmas Eve in the Old Town House" sung by a group comprising choir members and one of their mothers. It is rare to have an evening without something by John Rutter, and his arrangement of Silent Night preceded the final number, which was a Christmas Medley, joined by Chris and Cath, and two choir members playing the flute, and various members of choir and audience playing bells during "Winter Wonderland" "Jingle Bells" and other well known songs.  During this John McHugh vacated the keyboard seat to play bass guitar, while Lesley Bentley, musical director and conductor led from the keyboard.

Lesley deserves special mention not only for the high standard of performance achieved by the choir, but also the welcoming atmosphere she creates introducing each performer.

Very often Liverpool Voice finish their evenings with "Keep you in Peace" but this time it was displaced as members of the audience requested a repeat of "Moon River". Very nice too.

Watch out for the next Arts Cafe evening, probably toward the end of March, and try and get to "Joy to the World - An evening of Christmas Songs and Audience Carols" at Mossley Hill Parish Church on Thursday 11th December at 7.30pm.

The Armed Man

The Armed Man by Karl Jenkins is an amazing work, and surely all the better for being performed live, as it was last Saturday at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall by the Liverpool Welsh Choral Union and the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by the composer.

It is called a Mass, and has some traditional elements of a Mass, such as Kyrie and Agnus Dei, but it also draws material from different times and parts of the world.

It is called a Mass for Peace, but the title, and the liberal use of drums, gives parts of it a quite militaristic feel. Sanctus, one of the pieces which I was somewhat familiar with from classic FM, seems almost incongruous with the drum beat that underpins it.  One piece, called the charge, more than any other catches the excitement of war, and the way man gets dragged into the lust of battle.

But if it catches the adrenalin of war, it catches also the horror of war.  One of the pieces is a poem written by a Japanese person emerging from the ruins of Hiroshima, and ancient Indian piece called Torches is very graphic.  There is a one moment where the choir lets out a noise somewhere between a wail and a scream.

It is difficult to view it as a religious work, as it draws material from Christian, Moslem and Hindu sources, as well as secular poets. Even so, it is a spiritual work.  It starts with a call to prayer, and after celebrating and lamenting war it calls on the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. Finally, after ringing out the old and ringing in the new, there are the words from revelation.. God will wipe away the tears..there shall be no more death or sorrow. It has the subject matter to be depressing, but it is, ultimately a work of hope.

All these great themes are well expressed in music, making it a very varied evening, an emotional roller coaster. As well as some big moments, making full use of the sizeable choir and orchestra, with generous use of brass and percussion, there are some beautifully lush pieces. Outstanding amongst these is the Benedictus, with an exquisite cello solo.

The four soloists were good, but spent most of the evening waiting their turn, it is certainly the choir that is centre stage. They were joined at the end by the fifth soloist, and 11 year old lad of Yemeni background from Childwall school who performed the Moslem call to prayer from the back of the orchestra near the start.

It was good watching Karl Jenkins conduct, his baton movements were very precise. It was especially good when he was conducting the choir, putting down the baton and controlling the choir with precise hand gestures.

In the first half we Te Deum, also by Karl Jenkins, followed by Elgar Serenade for strings, conducted by the leader of the orchestra. All part of a great evening.

Two Peas

Much of Fauré's Requiem is marked as pianissimo, but we are a small choir, and with few voices the choir director said we should sing it a little louder. She said we should take the two 'p's with a pinch of salt.

Super-sing

Yesterday afternoon we went to the Super-sing concert at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall.
We had gone to hear two choirs brought together by the super-sing series. One classic choir and one Jazz choir each sang about four pieces that they had rehearsed during Thursday evenings during the previous six weeks.
Before the interval the orchestra played some Aaron Copeland and three movements from the planets.  It was a large orchestra, comprising probably three quarters from the philharmonic orchestra and one quarter amateurs who wanted to give it a go. They had only come together as an orchestra that morning, but whether this was preceded by six smaller rehearsals I do not know.  The friends we had come to hear were in the Jazz choir.
The audience was probably made up exclusively of family and friends of the performers, and the hall was comfortably full, but not packed.
The singing was a lot of fun.  We were invited to join the classic choir in their warm up exercises, and then treated to very good performances of Verdi and Vivaldi. There were probably about one hundred in each choir.
The Jazz was accompanied by piano drums and double base, each of which had solo spots on occasions, and were very good.  Some of songs has solo part sung by the conductor, and sometimes the choir was centre stage,  at least one time the instruments stopped and they were singing Al Capella. The conductor had us joining in at points. The Music included Blues, Duke Ellington and Ray Charles. It was a very enjoyable program and good afternoon.