Village choir strikes a chord with dramatic church concert
PRESTBURY Choral Society performed to a full house in their latest concert.
With a 20-piece orchestra, organ and four soloists under the musical direction of Simon Mercer, choir member Cynthia Crewe hailed the performance as one of the choir’s ‘best ever’.
The concert took place at St Bartholomew’s Church, on Chancel Lane, Wilmslow and featured songs celebrating maritime traditions from Charles Villiers Stanford and the dramatic music of Franz Schubert.
Cynthia said: “It was an amazing evening, a resounding success. Schubert’s Mass in A Flat was a big sing with plenty of drama in it, and Stanford’s Songs of the Fleet was something that was totally different.
“It was a bit like Gilbert and Sullivan in parts, and was very moving in others.”
She added that violinist and senior violin tutor at the Royal Northern College of Music, Steven Wilkie’s rendition of the beautiful Bach Violin Concerto in A Minor was ‘the icing on the cake.’
The choir are now looking forward to performing their next concert in June.
The performance will take place at the same venue where the choir will premiere a new work by their own accompanist and assistant musical director, James Pelham.
‘A Shropshire Lad’ is based on the epic poem by A E Housman.
Cynthia said: “James was inspired by the poem’s innate musicality and by the wide variety of human experiences expressed in it.
“Those experiences are of a young man going to war, its effect on him and on those he leaves behind at home.
“Although there is some darkness and uncertainty along the way, the composition ultimately ends on a note of hope.”
The choir will also sing an arrangement and medley of five wellknown negro spirituals by Jeremy Rawson.
They will dip into the world of opera too, with a selection of pieces from the Great Opera Choruses including Borodin’s ‘Polovtsian Dances’; Handel’s ‘Chorus of Enchanted Islanders’; and Verdi’s ‘Triumphal Chorus from Aida’.
There will also be a piano piece interlude.
Cynthia said: “This promises to be another evening of wonderful, eclectic music and we encourage people to come along.”
The concert is on June 4, at 7.30pm at St Bartholomew’s Church, Chancel Lane, Wilmslow, SK9 4AA. Tickets are priced at £10, £9 concessions and will be available to buy at the door, in advance from the choral society’s website prestburychoral.org or by phoning 01625 584337.