Spirituals, Psalms and Songbirds – Spring Concert
The Sheldon Singers returned to St Paul’s Church Honiton on Saturday with a varied programme tied together with unifying motifs. The first part of the evening consisted of a selection of unaccompanied songs for the choir, on the theme of birdsong, ranging from a 15th century nonsense song (in French!), via madrigals, to the more familiar Cornish folk song which most people know as “Down in those valleys below”, arranged for solo baritone – Peter Smith from the Choir - and chorus.
On Christmas Night
On Saturday 20th December Honiton’s Sheldon Singers performed their Christmas Concert at The Beehive Centre for the first time. The format was rather different from their usual Christmas offering in that appropriate readings were inserted into the programme, which made the evening even more enjoyable.
This Sceptred' Isle – Spring Concert
The Sheldon Singers’ gave the appreciative audience at St Paul’s Church on Saturday, 27 April an eclectic mix of pieces from composers both traditional and contemporary. Huge choral anthems, such as ‘Zadok the Priest’ and gentler items, including Purcell’s ‘Bid the Virtues’ for soprano solo and oboe, sat alongside each other in the first half of the programme. As Director of Music Julie De’Ath Lancaster pointed out in her introduction, “it’s not often that you hear Mahler and Strauss in the same programme, followed after the interval by a relatively new work by the composer Bob Chilcott, a former member of the King’s Singers”. But what a musical feast we had!
American Connections Concert
The antique shops of Honiton are packed with treasures: the familiar, the unfamiliar, some curiosities, and some new-found treasures. Anyone who ventured beyond those shops and into St Paul’s Church on Saturday 24 April would have experienced a musical equivalent presented by the far-from-antique and highly regarded Sheldon Singers in their Spring Concert, “AMERICAN CONNECTIONS”. Julie De’Ath-Lancaster, sparkling in both dress and personality, guided her able singers and the audience through a wonderfully varied programme of music from across ‘the pond’. There were works familiar and unfamiliar by Copland, Ives, Barber and Bernstein, and there were also some curiosities and new-found delights. Probably most notable amongst these was the “Missa Kenya” by Paul Basler. The “Gloria” from the mass, with its rhythmic energy, engaging melodies and the dynamic solo singing of Glyn Jones, proved to be a real show-stopper! A delighted audience was invited to become the rhythm section in a reprise of the “Gloria” and relished the experience.
Handel's 'Messiah', performed in St Paul's Church, Honiton on Saturday, 22 December 2012
Messiah is often done at Christmas, but not always in its entirety. Sheldon Singers, under the stylish direction of Julie De'Ath Lancaster, gave us the complete work at their recent concert, and what a treat it was. Smallish forces in chorus and orchestra created an authentic baroque sound, just as – the programme note pointed out – Handel would have expected to hear.
From the start, with well-judged tempi and dynamics in the opening Sinfony, it was clear that this was not a large-scale free-for-all but a chamber performance of charm and poise. The chorus, who are the backbone of this piece, after all, produced some lovely sound, nimble in the 'runny bits' although occasionally lacking in attack. The men especially were inclined to lose volume in the faster passages. However, the dramatic choruses in part 2 were handled confidently, and the Hallelujah chorus was magnificent.
Darkness to Light Concert
This was a very interesting concert. The main work, Howard Goodall’s Requiem “Eternal Light”, which formed the second part of the evening, is itself a complex piece which juxtaposes Latin liturgy with English poetry, and the whole work has something of a patchwork quality, with choruses, songs and a hymn, in a whole range of styles both modern and traditional, with tinges of jazz, minimalism, modern popular music and (almost) TV themes, all within only 40 minutes.
The first part of the concert reflected this patchwork idea, with short mostly unaccompanied choral works interspersed with readings, all related to the theme “Darkness to Light” (From the works we heard, I wondered whether this could mean November through Advent to Christmas, or death followed by the resurrection of souls).