Berberis' World

Monday, 18th December 2017, Southwark Cathedral, London SE1 9DA.

Carols for choirs and audience: Once in royal David’s City/Of the Father’s heart begotten/Silent Night/Hark! the herald angels sing/The First Nowell/O come, all ye Faithful

Soloist on Once in royal David’s City: Joe Davies (Bromley Youth Music Trust)

Southwark Cathedral’s full title is, apparently, The Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St Saviour and St Mary Overie. It’s across the road from London Bridge station, and right next to Borough Market, and is spectacular. I’d attended one of these services before, as a member of the congregation. This time, it was at the invitation of the Mayor, Sadiq Khan, who’d invited us and The Metropolitan Police Choir to perform a couple of songs during the concert.

The Met Police Choir is 65-strong group of serving and retired officers and police staff. It was formed in the 1960s as a male voice choir but, in 2016, auditions were opened to men and women, and there were just over half of the choir present this evening. Even with reduced numbers they sounded amazing.

We sang ‘Behold That Star‘ (arr. by the genius that is Bob Chilcott) and ‘Bridge’, and I was genuinely pleased about how well they both went. There was no sign of the collective anxiety that occasionally mars a performance, despite the nervousness which surfaced after the dress rehearsal. The Met Police performed ‘Still, Still, Still‘, by Norman Luboff and it was beautifully done. They also sang ‘We Wish You A Merry Christmas’ (arr. Arthur Warrell) which was completely different in tone but still sounded superb.

Young Joe Davies was note perfect, and seemingly not at all bothered either by the capacity audience or the many cameras which were undoubtedly focussed on him during his solo. And so polite! He came up to us during the reception after the concert and praised our performance, which was lovely of him.

And then there was the descant. There was no way I wasn’t going to sing them – apart from Silent Night and The First Nowell, which I don’t know that well. I’d probably not have been anywhere near as confident without Duffy next to me, and we belted out the lines with gusto. All in all, a great evening in a magnificent venue.

Saturday, 16th December 2017, St Mary the Virgin, Lewisham.

Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on Christmas Carols

Carols for choir and audience: It came upon the midnight clear/Gabriel’s message/The crown of roses/There is a flower/O little town of Bethlehem/Star carol/Hush! my dear, lie still and slumber/Sir Cristémas/Of the Father’s heart begotten/Carol of the bells/God is with us/I wonder as I wander/God rest ye merry, gentlemen/Hark! the herald-angels sing

Baritone: Pierpaolo Finaldi

Piano: Nico de Villiers

Conductor: Dan Ludford-Thomas

Ah, Xmas. Or Christmas, if you think the X takes Christ out of the season (it doesn’t). Add a splash of red to the usual long and black!, partake of mulled wine during the interval!, join in with the descant!

All three are optional, of course. In reality, as an alto, only two of them are achievable on the night. The descant is, on the whole, about two or three tones too high for comfort. Besides, some of the alto lines are actually better than the melody. Only some, mind you – there really are only so many Es you can sing in a row…

As far as the carols go, there were the usual suspects. All of these are lovely, and just being able to sing the tune in the last verse makes a change.

Gabriel’s message is – to all but the sopranos – you only get one word. The crown of roses is a song about a child being really very badly bullied – where were the parents of these yobs? Horrific.

There is a flower is a bit twee. I have never yet managed to pitch the C in bar 57. O little town of Bethlehem is rehearsed with the warning that it is NEVER ‘where meek souls will receive him still <breath> the dear Christ enters in’. We know. Why not remind the audience?

Star carol is really for children. And the 1980s.

Hush! my dear, lie still and slumber was my favourite, because the altos got to sing the tune… not once, but twice!! And there was much rejoicing. Seriously. Just remember to NOT sing verses 3 and 5, and yes there’s a verse 7 over the page. One of the best things about this being that, if you forget, there is a minim rest in the first bar so no-one will notice. The other best things are the final 10 bars. Splendid stuff.

I hate Sir Cristémas. But I can channel this into the first alto entry in bar 4, which helps me get through the rest of the nonsense. Dan loves it, so I can say with almost 100% certainty that we’ll sing it next Xmas as well.

Of the Father’s heart begotten is an old-school majestic sing, with a glorious alto line in the last verse. And the end of the first half of the concert.

There was the usual rush for mulled wine, which always smells nicer than it tastes.

Carol of the bells is irrevocably improved changed by the Cracked Christmas parody. God is with us is all breves and weirdness. Not sure about this one. Needs a good soloist, so that may limit whether we sing it every year. I wonder as I wander is quite jazzy – given my dislike of modern religious music, I shouldn’t like it, but I do.

God rest you merry, gentlemen is another make-sure-you-breathe-in-the-right-place carol. It’s ‘God rest you merry <comma> gentlemen’. Again, no-one takes any notice.

Hark! the herald-angels sing – I always want to sing the descant but it goes to a top A, and that’s a good tone above my present range.

Fantasia on Christmas Carols we’ve sung before. I think I also sang it with the LPC, but can’t find any evidence of that. Again, it needs a good soloist –  which we definitely had – and you need to be able to count, as the time signature is all over the place. There are a few bars towards the end that, in previous performances, I’ve always sung incorrectly but – yay! not this time.

A hugely enjoyable – and very well attended – concert.