(Picture by Mick Norman)
Final festivities of the term
The final few festivities (too much alliteration ?) to mark the end of the term saw members of the University community in fine form, with ‘Carols Round The Tree’ on Wednesday night bringing staff, students, visitors and friends together on a brisk December night.
The University Brass Ensemble braved the temperature to provide some robust playing whilst accompanying singers in a variety of traditional favourites. The student group ‘Sing!’ and the Chamber Choir joined in with a couple of carols as well.
An all-male barbershop quartet, distilled from members of the Chamber Choir, proivded lunchtime entertainment in Rutherford College on Thursday for the annual Former Staff Association Christmas lunch.
As usual, it’s been a lively end to the Christmas term: thanks to everyone involved, to Kent Hospitality and the Estates Team for their support (and roast chestnuts and mulled wine!) on Wednesday night.
Around the blogs this week…
Director of Music, Susan Wanless, reflects on the mighty concert with the Chorus and Symphony Orchestra last Saturday on ‘Playing Up…’
Whilst the Chamber Choir takes part in the annual University Carol Service in the candle-lit grandeur of Canterbury Cathedral over on ‘Cantus Firmus.’
Carols by stealth: flashmob yesterday
A terrific thank you to everyone who came along to the ‘Flashmob’ carols yesterday, as we surprised visitors to the University’s Open Day in Rutherford dining-hall with a choice selection of carols.
They really got into the spirit of it: as you can see, they worked hard to sneak onto the balcony in Rutherford dining hall unobserved before springing up with a chord of Bb in their hearts to begin with a rousing ‘Ding Dong Merrily On High!’ which was greeted with warm applause from an enthusiastic crowd of visitors.
With members of the University community gathering in the evening for ‘Carols Round the Tree,’ the campus truly was alive with festive singing!
Music from England and Russia: Chorus and Orchestra concert
Tomorrow’s concert sees the Symphony Orchestra and Chorus showcasing twentieth-century music from England and Russia: Parry’s enduringly-popular I Was Glad, a rare chance to hear Finzi’s For St Cecilia, Lyadov’s The Enchanted Lake, and the programme comes to a triumphant conclusion with Mussorgsky’s mighty Pictures at an Exhibition.
The concert begins at 7.30pm in Eliot Hall: further details and ticket-bookings on-line here.
Around the blogs this week
The Chamber Choir is travelling across boundaries in a cosmopolitan rehearsal, as it looks at repertoire for the February Crypt concert as well as prepares for Monday’s Carol Service in the Cathedral…
The Medway Choir is about to make its debut in the Universities of Medway Carol Service, also next Monday, which also features music, drama and readings by various Societies as well, in what promises to be a vibrant festive celebration.
‘Tis the season, after all…
Feeling the Cold: lunchtime with Vivaldi and Purcell
The University Camerata and Cecilian Choir teamed up for yesterday’s final lunchtime concert of the term, with Vivaldi’s Winter and Purcell’s ‘Frost Scene’ from King Arthur.
Soloist in the Vivaldi, Jeremy Ovenden brought out the brittle, biting aspect of the piece in a strong, confident reading, and the Camerata responded with suitable fragility in the sul ponticello passages.
Making her debut at the Gulbenkian, Music Scholar Paris Noble cast a bright flame as Cupid, scolding the Cold Genius (a welcome return for alumnus Piran Legg) and bringing on a chorus of Cold Revellers to warm them up and spread love throughout the arctic countryside.
The Cecilian Choir, looking suitably chilly in winter hats and coats (there had been a fire-alarm that morning, so the musicians ended up waiting outside the Theatre for a while – true method-acting, as one of the altos wryly observed), shambled on before casting aside their winter attire for a heroic closing chorus.
Pictured also is the fine harpischord brought in for the concert (Christmas truly came early for me this year), a Ruckers-Hemsch copy by Ian Tucker, based on an instrument from 1763, which had a soundboard decorated identically to one owned by Handel. Many thanks to Edmund Pickering for delivering and tuning the instrument.
Bravo to all involved: a concert to ‘warm’ the heart…
(Photos: Chris Gray.)
Around the blogs this week
Over on ‘Cantus Firmus,’ the University Cecilian Choir is in preparation for Monday’s ‘Cold’ lunchtime concert, as it rehearses Purcell’s ‘Frost Scene’ from King Arthur.
There’s also no time for the Chamber Choir to rest on its laurels, as it heads straight from its Advent concert last Friday into rehearsals for the Carol Service in Canterbury Cathedral on Monday week.
The Medway Music Society pose the biggest conundrum of the season: whether or not to have a Society Ball…
And, unrelated to the University’s musical life but of interest nevertheless, Alex Ross reports over on ‘The Rest is Noise’ on an interesting time at the Met, Philip Glass, protest and the police…