Saturday 29th June 2024
It was a lovely summers day – sunny but not too warm, and St Mary’s Church in the historic heart of Long Crendon provided the perfect place for our ‘Perfect Peace’ summer concert. The dress theme for the concert was ‘Green and Pink’, giving choir members the sartorial chance to be suitably floral.
The afternoon rehearsal allowed the choir to tune into the church acoustic and for David to run through the set programme. Some slightly ‘Heath Robinson’ technology adjustments were needed to allow Richard to be able to see David conducting around the corner of the venerable church organ. The tea urn eventually boiled to provide much appreciated refreshments, served with delicious home-made cakes.
The audience started arriving quite early from 7pm, which was a promising sign. In fact, more chairs had to be put out as the church filled up. The anticipation of starting the concert quickly settled into a confident rendition of Victoria’s ‘O Magnum Mysterium’ and Stanford’s achingly sad ‘Peace, Come Away’. The sublime canon of ‘Miserere Mei’ by Henry Purcell suited the choir very well indeed. Moving on with pieces by Byrd, Bach and Mendelssohn, the choir choir signed off the first half of the programme with two suprisingly fast and energetic movements from Mozart’s Solemn Vespers. Never have conductor beats been watched so closely.
The sizeable audience meant that the church committee had significant demand for their offerings of sparkling wine and nibbles during the interval. It also gave a leisurely time for everyone to chat and recharge before the second half.
The simple melodic beauty of the Rutter piece set the tone for the second half. The audience clearly enjoyed the folk song style of Dvorak’s ‘Songs of Nature’. Brahm’s ‘In Stiller Nacht’ was suitably ‘expressivo’. The Poulenc was very French. The theme of nature and gardens continued with ‘The Bee’ and ‘Daffodils’. Brittens ‘Flower Songs’ were deftly performed, before hurtling towards a showy finale with the ‘Ballad of Green Broome’
The enjoyment of another successful concert was followed by a social gathering at the nearby Eight Bells Pub, where Kirsten generously had organised food and drink to be enjoyed by choir and friends.