PAST CONCERTS

Remembrance Day Concert at St Saviour’s Counterpoint
reviewed by Robin  Gregory

 A choral concert in Street’s handsome church in South Street on November 11th required skilled programming. Counterpoint opted for four short works in the first half, with Rutter’s Mass of the Children filling Part Two. The Choir, under its regular conductor, Aanna Colls, showed its range of   tone and balance immediately in Finzi’s ‘Let us now praise famous men’, though the biblical text was   not always brought out with sufficient clarity. Perhaps more stressed consonants would have overcome the church’s resonant acoustic. 

Elgar’s ‘Nimrod’ is a tune we all know and love; but to many of us its setting for unaccompanied voices  as ‘Lux Aeterna’  is less familiar. Nine members of Counterpoint made a compelling case for this gem  to be heard more often. Similarly we know Binyon’s verse that begins ‘They shall not grow old’, but   how many could identify the lines that follow? In Elgar’s setting, the choir gave a moving performance of a strangely ‘modern’ work, and solo soprano, Laura Serpis soared aloft like a spirit ascending. 

The strongest in the evening’s feast concluded Part One. Schools were invited to compose poems for Remembrance, and the winning entry by twelve year old Jack Adelston of St Bede’s was set to music  by the conductor. This produced a work of great power which could well grace the Last Night of the Proms. Timpanist, Dennis Chanter, set the roof shaking right from the chilling start, and the Choir,  joined by the newly formed Counterpoint Young People’s Choir, found additional resources of range   and attack. Tenor soloist Paul Doling’s entry was hugely impressive, baritone Peter Alexander was as secure as ever, and the youngsters were disciplined and involved. The quiet resolution towards the   end was perfectly achieved. 

Rutter’s Mass of the Children is becoming his best known work, and deservedly so. It succeeds if  choir, orchestra, adult soloists and children can build its textures from its relatively simple components, and on this occasion they succeeded so well that detailed comment becomes superfluous. At the end the applause was fully deserved, and was shared by master organist David Force of Eastbourne college’s Music Department. The printed programmes also deserved a round: they were instructive, artistic and a worthy souvenir.
 

Part of the Children’s Choir

 
 


Robin Gregory reviews the Christmas Concert, 2006

Counterpoint Choir in sparkling form

Herstmonceux Castle is fast becoming Eastbourne’s Glyndebourne. The subtle lighting reflected in the moat was the perfect approach to the Castle Ballroom, where The Counterpoint Choir presented their Christmas Concert on December 15th, 2006. The customary handsome, informative Christmas Programme promised an Advent feast, which was delivered with joyful spirit and much evidence of skilful preparation. Even members of the audience were drilled by conductor Aanna Colls before their efforts were passed as worthy.

Laura Serpis set the standard for the entire evening with her unaccompanied first verse of ‘Once in Royal David’s City’. Throughout, the choir was in sparkling form, whether in well known chestnuts or in such interesting rarities as Donald Cashmore’s ‘This Child Behold’. Various singers drawn from the choir did their party pieces well, at their best in several new works. David Force’s setting of ‘Balulalow’ and the conductor’s own ‘Love came down at Christmas’ being specially successful. A high spot was William Mathias’s ‘A babe is Born’, which drew superb choral singing and showed the fine pianism of Francis Rayner at it best. A solo spot from this gifted musician would have been welcome.

Planning this sort of programme is no easy matter. The participant listeners need some well known reminders of their schooldays, but they also need the inspiration of something new. We got both. There were, however, some points which needed further attention, as when the readers of prose and poetry seemed undecided whether to use the microphone or not. Some were certainly inaudible at the back of the hall, and the particular mike characteristics needed addressing. Among the more successful items (all of which were well chosen) were Dudley Dean’s reading of Betjeman’s ‘Advent’, and Paul Doling’s hilarious rendering of Robert Salter’s ‘Corinthian Epistle’. 

What made the evening ultimately so enjoyable was the fine choral singing, and the welcome discovery of some previously unknown works. This reviewer will certainly be at Counterpoint’s next Concert at Eastbourne Town Hall on March 17th and he has put their Summer Music Festival at Herstmonceux Castle

(June 27 -  July 1) firmly in his diary.