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The Brian Moore New Year’s Day Concert 2008

Presented by the Friends of St. Giles

      Bliss’s joyous fanfare preceded Julia Hoadley, newly elected Chairman of the Friends of St. Giles, who welcomed us to this year’s concert.  The stalwart St. Giles Brass Ensemble, under the baton of Ray Jewkes, began with Eric Leidzen’s energetic ‘Wassail March’, a medley linking ‘Joy to the World’ to the ‘God Bless you and send you a Happy New Year’ toast, with a hint of Jingle Bells.  Later we had the rich sound of the ‘Grand March’ from Aida, and Leroy Anderson’s ‘Sleigh Ride’, complete with a whip crack of unusual provenance.  As ever the playing was magnificent and sensitive. 

Massimo Roman, clarinet, accompanied by John Castle, played Weber’s ‘Variations Opus 33’ which moved from a simple initial theme through jaunty, plaintive, funereal and ultimately grander versions, until returning to the sweet mellow theme to end.  Massimo chose two of Finzi’s lovely ‘Five Bagatelles’, the upbeat ‘Prelude’ and the beautiful ‘Forlana’, gentler, with clever interplay between the clarinet and the piano.

John then moved to the organ, but before he played he sounded a warning about potential “extraneous noises” due to a technical fault.  He played Langlais’ loud and raucous ‘Pasticcio’ on the swell to great effect, but decided against the Bach ‘Prelude and Fugue’, so switched to the piano for Plan B, Chopin’s ‘Raindrop Prelude’.  After the interval the organ was behaving itself well enough for John to play Sweelinck’s cheerful and complex variations on an apparently solemn German chorale on the transitory nature of life, genuinely uplifting and beautiful music.

In contrast, Howard Wilson chose to frighten us with a truly horrid Dickens tale, ‘A Nurse’s Story’ from the Uncommercial Traveller. Howard ably depicted the diabolical character of Captain Murderer, whose mission was matrimony, but whose brides ended up as meat pies – until thankfully his last bride was revenged by swallowing a deadly poison just before her demise, so that after eating he swelled, turned blue, screamed, and ultimately blew up.  In lighter vein Howard read sections of Dorothy Wordsworth’s Grasmere Journals detailing the walks that inspired the famous ‘Daffodils’ written by her brother – and then Christine Wilson entertained us with Lyn Peters’ ‘Why Dorothy Wordsworth is not as famous as her brother’ – largely, it would seem, because she had to keep interrupting her own writing to find William’s socks and coat, and help him boil an egg.

Andrea Hazell, mezzo soprano, accompanied by Christine Burton, sang ‘Habanera’ from Carmen, and the exuberant ‘Prince Orlofsky’s Song’ from ‘Die Fledermaus’.  Then, moving from opera, Andrea convinced us all with real flourish that she ‘Could Have Danced All Night’, whilst being a girl (Annie from Oklahoma) who ‘Cain’t say no’ - super singing filling this fine old church.  

After a dose of New Year Strauss from the brass players (the ‘Tritsch Tratsch Polka’) we joined in with the roistering ‘Radetsky March’ before agreeing that this had been a splendid concert.                

Many thanks to all concerned - Alison Reynolds

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