Recent Concerts
2010 - 2011 Season Of Concerts
2010-11 was a season of great contrasts and great challenges. The
November 2010 concert was a highlight for the choir as it was an
opportunity to perform the Verdi Requiem again, with the excellent
accompaniment of the enlarged Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra and
outstanding soloists.
The annual performance of the Messiah at St Nicholas’ Church,
Kenilworth once again showcased the versatility of Colin Druce, as a
problem with the organ meant that the piano needed to be used
instead. However, this brought a new lightness and clarity to the
orchestral rendition and gave a new directness to the choir’s
interpretation.
The March 2011 gave the opportunity for the choir to work once
again with the professional musicians of the orchestra of the 18th
century. The choir engaged itself well with the relentless drama of
the Bach St John Passion.
The summer 2011 concert brought with it one of biggest challenges
the choir has faced to date; namely taking on Parry’s fiendishly
difficult “Songs of Farewell” for unaccompanied chorus. The choir
certainly rose to the challenge and framed the concert with works by
Stanford, one of Parry’s contemporaries and Mendelssohn one of his
key influences.
The 2009 - 10 Season of Concerts
The 2009-10 season has been the first full year under our new Music Director, Andrew Jones. It has been a challenging but enjoyable experience.
The November 2009 concert consisted of the Brahms and Faure Requiems with the accompaniment of the Birmingham Sinfonia. Under Andrew’s calm
direction, the Choir coped well with the very different challenges of the two pieces. The demands of the Brahms Requiem were offset by the more
delicate singing required in the Faure Requiem.
The Christmas concert of Messiah at St Nicholas’ Church, Kenilworth delivered its customary successful introduction to the Christmas season but in a subtly
different performance under our new conductor. Colin Druce again provided an apparently effortless accompaniment on the organ.
The March 2010 concert was a varied and lively programme – the little known Schubert Magnificat in C and the more familiar Mozart Mass in C Minor, surrounding
another virtuoso solo performance by Colin Druce of Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No 1. Again the Choir were accompanied most eloquently by the Birmingham Sinfonia.
The summer programme was particularly daunting for many of us with the musical challenge of the Poulenc Gloria and the textual and linguistic difficulties of
Schubert’s Deutsche Messe, relieved by the lighter demands of the Vivaldi Gloria. Colin Druce provided an outstanding organ accompaniment and, in the event,
the choir finished the year in fine style and earned a glowing critique in the local press for themselves, their conductor and their accompanist.
The 2008-9 Season of Concerts
The 2008-9 season has been a year of significant change for the Society because in December 2008 we lost the services of our
highly regarded conductor Ron Binnie.Ron had been our Musical Director for almost 14 years and conducted the choir in some 54 concerts. Fortunately, and characteristically,
Ron gave the Society over 18 months’ notice of his retirement decision and we were able to recruit his successor, Andrew Jones,
early in 2008. Andrew, whose CV is detailed under “Musical Director”, took over in January 2009.
Ron’s last major concert, at All Saints’ Church, Leamington Spa on 22nd November 2008, was predictably lively. Before a large
audience and accompanied by the Birmingham Sinfonia the Choir sang Elgar’s The Music Makers and large parts of
Orff’s Carmina Burana and the Birmingham Sinfonia played Sibelius’ Seventh Symphony.
Ron’s final appearance with the Choir was the traditional Handel's Messiah at St Nicholas' Church, Kenilworth
in December, accompanied by Colin Druce on the organ.
Haydn’s Creation was performed in March 2009 as the first work under our new conductor, Andrew Jones.
The work was familiar to most members of the Choir which made it a good vehicle through which Andrew could build his relationship
with the Choir. Despite this familiarity, Andrew brought new insights into how we should sing the piece and in how the choir
should present itself to its audience. Organ accompaniment was provided by Colin Druce.
The summer concert in June 2009 consisted of five Bruckner Motets and Mozart’s Requiem
, again accompanied by Colin Druce on the organ. The concert opened with some light pieces performed by the Warwick
Trombone Trio. The Choir rose to the challenge of limited accompaniment in the Motets and sang the Requiem with verve.
The evening was a great success.
The 2007-8 Season of Concerts
The 2007-8 season opened with a performance of
Bach's Christmas Oratorio on November 24th 2007
at All Saints' Church in Leamington Spa.
 We were again accompanied by the outstanding
18th Century Concert Orchestra.
which contributed to an authentic and memorable performance.
Our regular Christmas concert of Handel's Messiah at St Nicholas' Church in Kenilworth was another
great success, drawing our largest ever audience for this event and testing the limits of available concert programmes and
interval refreshments!
The March 2008 concert was a varied programme consisting of Cherubini's Requiem in C Minor,
Dvorak's Te Deum and Vaughan Williams' Dona Nobis Pacem. The Vaughan
Williams piece had proved a particularly testing work for the choir during rehearsal but they delivered a very creditable
concert performance with the full bodied support of the Birmingham Sinfonia.
Handel's Alexander's Feast provided a gentler and more predictable programme for the June 2008 concert.
Colin Druce's excellent organ accompaniment was ably supplemented by Adrian Moore (harpsichord) and Eric Martens (cello).
The 2006-7 Season of Concerts
Our first concert of the 2006-7 season was a performance of
Monteverdi's Vespers of the Blessed Virgin Mary on November 18th 2006
at All Saints' Church in Leamington. This proved to be one of the choir's most difficult works,
but ultimately the audience was treated to an excellent performance by choir, soloists and orchestra alike.
 We were accompanied by the outstanding
18th Century Concert Orchestra.
They certainly justified the title of
'one of the finest exponents of baroque music in the country' (Oxford Times).
Then in December the choir performed its annual Messiah concert in Kenilworth to a record audience.
Unfortunately the tenor soloist collapsed during the dress rehearsal and was
rushed to hospital. We were grateful to David Manford, the previous year's tenor, for taking his place for
the concert - a fantastic achievement when you consider he had had no notice at all and no opportunity to
rehearse with the choir and orchestra.
Our March concert was a dramatic performance of Mendelssohn's ever-popular oratoria, Elijah.
Although sections are often cut, we performed the work in its entirety. It was a long evening but hugely enjoyable.
Our summer concert was a performance of the delightful Fauré Requiem
and the Shubert Mass in A flat.
The 2005-6 Season of Concerts
Our 2005-2006 season's concerts started in November with the
Missa Solemnis
by Beethoven. For this we were joined by the Sinfonia of Birmingham, the
first time the choir had worked with this orchestra. A search of the archives
shows that this was the first
performance by the Society of this mighty choral
work. In fact, Beethoven's choral music has only been
performed twice before in the Society's history: the
Mass in C
in 1998 and the
Choral Fantasia
in 2001 (this sell-out concert also included his fifth piano concerto performed
by Charles Matthews).
After weeks of extremely challenging rehearsals (the work
is very difficult) there was a real buzz when the choir got together with the
orchestra on the day, and all agreed that the performance was a tremendous
success. We felt very relieved and proud to have brought it off so
satisfactorily. (Ron said that he was still on a high at the first rehearsal of
the new term in January!)
December brought the annual Kenilworth performance of
Messiah, with a slight difference this year: alterations to the church mean that more
room has been created in the performance area, which gave us the opportunity to
use
a chamber orchestra with organ continuo rather than just organ accompaniment as
in the past.
Handel's oratorio
Solomon
was our March concert, with our old friends from last year The 18th Century
Concert Orchestra. This work provides lots of grand choruses, mostly for double
choir, and also
includes the famous
Arrival of the Queen of Sheba
which saw the soprano soloist make a stately progress down the aisle in a regal
purple gown (she wore a green one in the earlier parts for her roles as
Solomon's own queen and one of the women to whom Solomon delivers his famous
judgement as to who is the rightful mother of a baby). We were grateful to
Helen Meyerhoff and the tenor Andrew Mackenzie-Wicks for stepping in at short
notice as the two originally-booked soloists had succumbed to illness. The
audience for this Handel concert was encouragingly large, after the previous March's
rather disappointing turnout for his
Samson. Perhaps people had come to see what they missed last year!
Mozart's 250th birthday was duly celebrated at our summer concert, with
performances of the Solemn Vespers, the Coronation Mass and Piano Concerto No
23 in which the soloist was once again our very own Colin Druce.
The 2004-5 Season of Concerts
Our 2004-2005 season began with a concert that included two favourites, the
Mozart
Requiem
and his
Clarinet Concerto
(beautifully performed by Lucy Tugwell). The third work in the programme was
the Poulenc
Gloria
which was a very French take
on Latin church music and a fun work providing a great contrast to the rest of
the concert. The only hitch in the programme came at the beginning; the concert
start was delayed by 15 minutes as the conductor had to go home to retrieve the
Poulenc score which he had left on the kitchen table!
After the usual
Messiah
in December, the next challenge was Handel's
Samson
in March, which provided lots of work for the choir and a chance to hear the
famous
soprano solo
Let the Bright Seraphim
. The choir was joined by The 18th Century Concert Orchestra playing
brilliantly on period instruments, and four first-rate soloists. We are
especially grateful to the bass Charbel Mattar who stepped in at the very last
minute in place of the indisposed Eddie Wade. It was disappointing that there
were only around 150 bums on seats at this concert, but those who missed
it had another chance to hear some superb Handel the following March when his
Solomon
was performed by the choir with the same orchestra.
The final concert of
the 2004-2005 season was in June when sacred compositions by Verdi, Rossini and
Pergolesi, three Italian composers who are all best known for their operatic
works, were performed by the choir and soloists with Colin Druce at the
organ. This concert was Ron Binnie's fortieth in charge of the choir. The
Rossini
Stabat Mater
was wonderfully operatic, with some splendid solos, and the Verdi
Sacred Pieces
presented some real challenges: one of the pieces was for female voices alone,
with words (by Dante) in Italian, which is very different from singing in
Latin! The last of the Verdi set was for double choir, which presented its own
problems as the choir's forces were somewhat depleted already, it being the
summer when our numbers are usually lower than at other times. We were also
treated to a piece by Liszt which Colin played on the organ.
2003-2004: The Choir's Fiftieth Anniversary
The 2003-2004 season was the Society's 50th Anniversary Season. This got off to
a flying start with a performance of the Verdi Requiem
in Leamington on St Cecilia's Day, November 22nd 2003. The annual performance
of Handel's Messiah in Kenilworth followed on 16th December.
The next concert in the 50th
Anniversary Season was on March 20th 2004 at All Saints Leamington, when
we had a capacity audience in spite of the weather, with persistent rain and a
wind strong enough to rattle the windows in the church. Our accompanist Colin
Druce excelled himself as soloist in the Grieg Piano Concerto
, and the choir performed two works by Brahms and the St Cecilia Mass
by Gounod, which was great fun and very French.
Our summer concert, on June 12th 2004 at St Mary's, Warwick, was
The Creation
by Haydn. This choral favourite rounded off a very successful season and was
followed a few days later by the annual dinner which was held at the Jephson
Gardens restaurant in Leamington, which with its glass doors rolled right back
proved to be a perfect venue on one of the hottest nights of the year.
Please click here for a full list of all concerts
performed by the choir in the last few years.
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