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Summer Chansons

Saturday 12th July 2008, St James' Church, Abinger Common

The rain held off. The setting sun smiled on St James' Church and the singers, musicians and audience within. A packed church was rewarded with a (somewhat depleted) Choral Society giving one of its best performances outside the Festival for many years. The quality of music was much enhanced by Michael Wigram, ’cello, and Lesley Starr (our regular accompanist), piano – as well as by the generous acoustics – but most of the credit for the choir's performance, and the overall success of the event, must surely go to our conductor, Amy Bebbington, whose efforts in selecting the right programme for the resources available, and in voicing and training us so meticulously, resulted in confident performances throughout the programme. Michael Wigram's superb rendition of Après un Rêve will linger long in the memories of many who were there.

The final programme was:

Leith Hill Musical Festival 2008

Division One: Thursday 10th April 2008, Dorking Halls

This was a vintage year for Holmbury St Mary Choral Society! We won all the main classes and the Ensemble class. It was with a mixture of disappointment and relief that we didn't win the Own choice class, because to have "swept the board" would have been something of an embarrassment. The judge felt that we didn't quite "pull it off" with Tea for two, and I don't think there would be any serious disagreement about that. There was perhaps most disappointment that Ensemble 1, who (in this writer's opinion – and I was conducting!) put in their best performance, were not awarded a higher mark.

The ladies put in the best performance of the day, with a very moving performance of Bob Chilcott's The Lily and the Rose, and deservedly shared the prize for the highest mark (90) in any class in any Division over the three days. The men surpassed themselves by winning their class ("we never do!"). The Vaughan Williams arrangement of Down Among the Dead Men suited our forces, but it is to be hoped that Bob Chilcott can be persuaded to write something as beautiful as The Lily and the Rose (for which he rightly received an ovation in the concert) for the men to sing in a future competition!

The concert in the evening was also a great occasion, with a particularly fine quartet of soloists in the Haydn. Brian Kay exhibited all his usual passion, commitment and sense of fun. The English Festival Orchestra was generally on excellent form – especially in the Haydn Paukenmesse and the Mozart Serenata Notturno – but there were some comments that they somewhat overwhelmed the chorus towards the end of the Vaughan Williams (there was no shortage of sound on the chorus side of the proscenium arch, so the poor acoustics of the hall must be partly to blame).

A good set of photographs taken during our day can be browsed on the Leith Hill Musical Festival website.

The Division One programme for 2008 was:

Christmas Carol Concert

Thursday 13th December 2007, W.I. Hall, Holmbury St Mary

This year's programme deliberately saw an increase in audience participation over previous years. One of several highpoints was provided by the (ultimately) successful attempt of our conductor, Amy Bebbington, to teach the audience and choir the round 'Freezing Fingers', complete with hand-movements. A packed hall enjoyed the usual diet of Christmas favourites, sacred and (especially in the case of 'Jingle Bells') profane, as well as the usual interval refreshments. Amy is to be congratulated on putting together a programme that the choir enjoyed singing as much as the audience enjoyed hearing. The programme was:

Mole Valley Arts Festival Concert: “Leith Hill Unleashed”

Saturday 13th October 2007, Dorking Halls

We contributed to a varied programme that featured several choirs representing all three Divisions of the Leith Hill Musical Festival, singing separately but not in competition. The concert also featured one of the winners of the Youth Choirs competition this year, and the Festival's regular accompanist, Alan Brown, gave a stunning performance of piano works by Chopin and E J Moeran.

Our contributions were:

• All my trials, Lord arranged by Bob Chilcott
• Let's do it by Cole Porter

Summer Tour Concert

Saturday 7th July 2007, Morchard Bishop, Devon

This was the last event at which the Choral Society was conducted by Tim Uglow, before his move from Surrey to Worksop. We sang a varied programme of mostly sacred music in the first half, followed after the interval by madrigals, songs from Broadway musicals and finishing with a series of spirituals. The choral contributions to the programme (there were organ and piano interludes provided by Tim Uglow and our accompanist, Lesley Starr) were:

Summer Concert

Saturday 23rd June 2007, Holy Trinity Parish Church, Westcott

The programme was much the same as for the concert on 7th July, but included extracts from Palestrina's Missa Brevis and the motet by Stanford Justorum animae.

Leith Hill Musical Festival 2007

Division One: Saturday 14th April 2007, Dorking Halls

The 2007competition started disappointingly for us. At the mid-morning break we had achieved two second-places and two third-places, leaving us trailing 10 points behind the leaders, Oxshott. Perhaps knowing that we had nothing to lose – catching Oxshott would be practically impossible – helped us to feel more relaxed in the remaining three classes, all of which we proceeded to win (Full chorus, Ensemble and Own choice). In the Ensemble class it was gratifying to gain an extra accolade by achieving (with two other choirs) the highest mark awarded in this year's competition (90 points). So, in the end, we had much to be satisfied with.

The concert was a great success. Encouraged by the baton of Brian Kay, the superb playing of the baroque ensemble Canzona, and the equally superb singing of five soloists, the combined choirs gave of their best and contributed to memorable performances of the Purcell and C.P.E. Bach in front of a packed house. With the composer, David Stone, in the audience, the women were obliged to sing Up in the morning twice – and did so in sparkling fashion.

The Division One programme for 2007 was as follows:

Christmas Carol Concert

Thursday 14th December 2006, W.I. Hall, Holmbury St Mary at 8 pm

The choir had put on an ambitious programme with something for everyone. The selection from Britten's Ceremony of Carols. proved particularly successful. The Poulenc motets probably needed one or two more rehearsals to have sounded really confident, but the first half ended well with a very atmospheric rendering of Chilcott's Lully, lulla. After the usual excellent mulled wine and nibbles in the interval, recollection of the remainder of the programme is somewhat hazy... A particular mention should be made of the splendid piano duets performed by our conductor Tim Uglow and – stepping in at short notice – Lesley Starr, who normally sings Alto but is for the time being filling the gap left by the departure of our regular accompanist.

The main programme was as follows:

Remembrance Day Concert

Saturday 11th November 2006, Holy Trinity Parish Church, Westcott

In the first half of the concert the theme of remembrance ran through the programme from Richard Farrant's lovely Call to remembrance written in the 16th century to Bob Chilcott's very contemporary carol Remember, O thou man. The chronological journey included works by Purcell, Duruflé and Puccini – Puccini's rarely heard Requiem was splendidly accompanied by Myfanwy Walters on the viola, and Purcell's When I am laid in earth was beautifully sung by Lucy Cronin.

The most challenging piece in the first half was Purcell's Jehova quam multi hostes mei - a setting in 5 parts of Psalm 3. The choir brought out well the changes of mood and tempo, and two of the choir members, Francis Cave (tenor) and David Futcher (bass) gave convincing solos.

The second half of the concert consisted of Faure's Requiem. This delicate and demanding work sounds much easier than it is. The performance overall was sensitive and well phrased and articulated, both by the choir and by Lucy Cronin and David Futcher as soloists.

The large audience was rightly very appreciative of the performances, and the choir and soloists, Timothy Uglow as conductor and Gavin Roberts as organ accompanist were long and warmly applauded.

Richard Frost

The final programme was as follows:

Summer concert

Saturday 24th June 2006, St James' Church, Abinger Common at 7.30 pm

The afternoon rehearsal...	...and the evening performance.

This concert was judged a success by all concerned. The church was packed. The weather was kind. The interval food and wine helped to create a mellow atmosphere for the lighter second half after more serious business of the first half. The idea of singing as we processed to our places at the start of each half worked very well. The choir gave some very good performances throughout and the Holywell String Quartet and vocal soloists Abigail Boreham (Soprano), Annalise Roy (Alto), Anirban Roy (Tenor) and Richard Hooper (Bass) performed superbly and contributed greatly to a memorable evening. This was our programme:

Leith Hill Musical Festival 2006

Friday 21st April 2006, Dorking Halls

This year's Division 1 competition provided a nail-biting finish! At the mid-morning break the results of four classes had been declared: we had won the madrigal class, but Oxshott had won the part song, men's and women's song classes, and they were three points ahead! With only one more class to determine the winner of the highest aggregate score, we didn't fancy our chances. So it was with some surprise, as well as obvious delight, that we beat Oxshott by four points in the full chorus class and so won the highest aggregate score by just one mark! Nevertheless, our marks were somewhat lower that we might have hoped to achieve, and there were salutory lessons in this year's competition about the value of preparation and the value of learning as much of the music as possible by heart.

The evening concert for our Division contained several memorable highlights, started with the English Festival Orchestra, who gave a scintillating performance of Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and were on top form throughout the evening. The competition trophies were presented by Richard Blackford, who gave us a fascinating insight into the process of composing Mirror of Perfection. This was followed by the performance of Mirror of Perfecfion, which proved extremely popular with the audience, much enhanced by some divine singing by the bass and soprano soloists and some equally divine playing by the orchestra. It was a rare privilege to perform such a beautiful work with the composer in the audience.

The programme of music for our Division was:

Christmas Carol Concert

Thursday 15th December 2005, W.I. Hall, Holmbury St Mary

Always an extremely popular event with which to start the Festive Season, this year's Carol Concert at the W.I. Hall was no exception. The appreciative audience was treated to the usual diet of sweet and savoury items, both in musical and culinary terms, washed down with some excellent mulled wine. On the musical front the highlights of the programme were:

		For Bob Chilcott's Where Riches is Everlasting the rumba rhythm was warmed up nicely by a percussion trio

		Tim Uglow and the choir receive applause at the end of the concert

Leith Hill Musical Festival 2005

Thursday 14th April 2005, Dorking Halls

2005 was the Centenary year for the Leith Hill Musical Festival. All were agreed that the major works on the programme (Poulenc and Vaughan Williams) were challenging, to say the least. Success in any part of the competition was by no means assured. Yet, to the surprise of some and the delight of all, we succeeded in winning the Full chorus, Men's song, Part song and Own choice classes, as well as a result achieved the highest aggregate score.The combined choirs concert in the evening went well. Dona nobis pacem was particularly moving, in no small part due to fine performances from the soloists Lucy Crowe (soprano) and William Berger (baritone). The English Festival Orchestra were on their usual exemplary form, and as usual we all enjoyed singing under Brian Kay's baton.

The full competition programme was as follows:

Christmas Carol Concert

Thursday 16th December 2004, W.I. Hall, Holmbury St Mary

This annual event was as enjoyable for all concerned as ever.

Music for a Midsummer Evening

Friday 25th June 2004, Woodhouse Copse, Holmbury St Mary

By kind permission of Monika Saunders and Music at Woodhouse we gave a concert at Woodhouse Copse as part of the 125th anniversary celebrations for the village of Holmbury St Mary. In the beautiful setting of the Woodhouse Copse concert hall and garden we sang a varied programme to an appreciative local audience. Conducted as usual by Timothy Uglow, we were accompanied by David Hinitt and were joined by the baritone Michael Pearce for a performance of Vaughan Williams' Five Mysical Songs. Timothy Uglow and David Hinitt provided two piano duet interludes. The full programe was as follows: