Spring Time Music

Springtime in music
Market Drayton Choral Society concert, Saturday 16 April

"Sweet lovers love the spring," says the song in Shakespeare's As You Like It, and lovers of sweet choral singing will love the spring concert at the Methodist Church in Market Drayton this coming Saturday evening.

Market Drayton Choral Society will open their concert with a sublimely beautiful requiem by the modern British composer Bob Chilcott.

Modelled in part on Fauré's requiem, which the choir performed to acclaim last November, the Chilcott flows with a sweet lyrical sound whose serenity is enlivened with resonant contemporary-sounding 'crunches'. Its Pie Jesu for chorus and soprano solo is breath-taking in its simplicity and sense of stillness. And a section with words in English, Thou Knowest Lord the Secrets of Our Hearts, is deeply moving in its plea for forgiveness.

Lyn Bright is welcomed back as soprano soloist. A former teacher at Grove School, Lyn has a lively, crystal-clear voice well matched to the piece. The tenor soloist is Edmund Le Brocq, a promising young professional singer who will be singing with the choir for the first time.

Two motets by Edward Elgar will follow. Then the programme offers a Drayton nod to The Bard on the 400th anniversary of his death, with a selection of his songs and sonnets set to music for choir, jazz piano and bass by George Shearing. They include 'When Daffodils Begin to Peer' from The Winter's Tale, 'Spring' from Love's Labour's Lost, and 'Who is Sylvia' from Two Gentlemen of Verona.

Ken Sterling, the choir's longstanding director, proudly proclaims with his inimitable perspective, "We're going to enjoy taking our audience on a journey from the musically sublime to the musically ridiculous."

After the Shakespeare, he will continue the journey with the setting of 'The Lord is My Shepherd' composed by Howard Goodall as the theme for The Vicar of Dibley.

And finally, 'Musical Risotto', by Jonathan Willcocks with nods to Handel, Beethoven, Rossini, Verdi-- you name it. It's a lively dish of musical terms served picante during which members of the choir hope not to bite their tongues, however deeply in their cheeks.

The choir is accompanied by John Gough, the accomplished pianist with numerous broadcasts on the BBC to his credit, and an ensemble consisting of piano, flute, clarinet, oboe, double bass and timpani.

Tickets are £10 available on the door from 7pm, for 7.30pm.

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