Wild Nights Out........October

Isle of Wight Cantata Choir

This concert was held at Ryde Methodist Church, a glorious building that I had never been inside before. The church was fairly large, with balconies both sides held up by decorated pillars and faced with painted ironwork. Straight ahead, and above the congregation, was the decorated paperwork for the church organ. Lovely. The concert was jazzy and bluesy. The first half saw a rendition of Bob Chilcott's 'Little Jazz Mass', followed by two solos from the visiting soloist Joanna L'Estrange, and a clarinet solo of a Gershwin medley by local music student Joshua Attrill. The second half gave a performance of Will Todd's 'Mass in Blue', which I enjoyed very much. The soloist was super, and for once was able to address the audience, which was nice. Another pleasant evening out!

 

Isle of Wight Literary Festival
I bought tickets to go and see Professor Jim al-Khalili talk about the new book  that he has edited, about science in the future. This was very interesting, and well attended. I came away with two books, and a signed copy of a Quantum Physics book that I had brought with me. Lovely chap!

Wild Nights out..... April

April Fool's Day ended with an enthusiastic and tuneful performance of Dvorak's 'Stabat Mater' at Medina Theatre. The members of Isle of Wight Cantata choir sang their hearts out, and were ably accompanied by a selection of musicians from the Isle of Wight Symphony Orchestra, as well as four choral soloists. Rachel Tweddle conducted everybody with great skill, as ever.

 

To bookend the month, I took the teenager to see 'The Queer Bash' at The Apollo Theatre; this was written and performed by members of Red Tie Theatre, and was performed with a great deal of skill. The theme was to explore issues surrounding the LGBTQ community and society as a whole, and had the audience running the full gamut of emotions throughout. I cried and laughed throughout. This was an extremely thought provoking production by young actors who had a lot to say, and a lot of talent to say it with. Coincidentally, one of the cast members had made the national headlines that day by calling out the local MP's views on homosexuality while he was visiting her politics class at school. He resigned. #whatesthersays

 

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/apr/28/tory-mp-steps-down-after-telling-pupils-homosexuality-is-wrong

Christmas Cantata Choir Concert

How's that for an alliterative title? Another soggy and windy afternoon an the Isle of Wight, and my Mum happened to be in the Cantata Choir Christmas concert at Medina Theatre to which I had agreed to attend. Stupidly I hadn't bought a ticket, but they hadn't sold out. While waiting in the box office queue, a chap came in and asked if anyone was buying a single ticket as he had a spare. I said yes, but sadly had no cash on me so couldn't help. No body else was interested so he turned round, said 'Happy Christmas' and gave me the ticket! What a lovely man. I have no idea who he was.

The concert itself was reasonably well attended. The choir performed the following songs:

• Gaudete (Anon. 16th century)
• Shepherd's Cradle Song ( K. Leuner)
• A Winter's Night (C. McDowell)
• Tomorrow shall be my Dancing Day (J. Gardner)
• The Little Road to Bethlehem (M. Head)
• The Colours of Christmas (J. Rutter)
• Jingle Bells (J. Pierpont)

I particularly enjoyed the first two and A Winter's Night, although all were lovely.  The choir were sometimes accompanied by a brass and percussion ensemble (two trumpets, a trombone, a French Horn and a Tuba), and/ or a piano. The ensemble also performed twice with a variety of Christmas arrangements.

The audience, as is traditional at this biannual concert, were expected to join in with some of the more well known carols such as Once in Royal David's City, and Good King Wenceslas. We were also encouraged to join in the descant parts if we knew them. So I did. My apologies to those around me as I am getting warbley in my middle age. Lovely way to spend a wet December afternoon.

Symphony Orchestra

Today has been very wet and windy, so not really hiking weather for lightweights like me. My Mum had a spare ticket to the first concert of the Isle of Wight Symphony Orchestra's new season, so I joined her. It was the first of their concerts that I had attended, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The orchestra has a sizeable string section, a reasonably sized brass section and enough woodwind and percussion to make a difference. There were three compositions on the programme tonight:

• Overture: Portsmouth Point (Walton)
• Violin Concerto No. 1 (Bruch)
• Symphony No.1 (Mahler)

The overture was jolly, with a nice introduction by the conductor, Jonathan Butcher, who explained the difference between rhythm and metre to the audience. The orchestra then demonstrated exceedingly clearly during the performance. A good start!

The violin concerto was magnificent; the soloist was Alexander Sitkovetsky, who came in all in black, shirt untucked, with wild hair, and gave a spellbinding performance ably accompanied by the orchestra. My occasional feeble scratchings on my fiddle were put very much to shame. Superb.

After the interval (Minghella ice cream was consumed, of course), we were treated to the Mahler symphony. This had four movements, all of which were well performed. I was entranced by the oboists, who kept pointing their oboes up in the air during the more exciting parts.

All in all, a lovely way to spend a miserable November evening, and I shall certainly go to more of their concerts in future.

Concerts

I have been to a couple of concerts recently. The first was at Quarr Abbey, near Binstead, for a performance of Faure's Requiem and French Motets by Les Fauristes Chamber Choir, from London. The concert was to raise funds for the restoration of the Abbey organ, and was free with a collection at the end.

 

I have to say I wasn't overwhelmed. The soloist, Judith Charron, was jolly good, but the choir sounded out of tune in places which rather marred their performance. The organist, Hamish Dustagheer, was, however, excellent. The Abbey itself is austere but rather lovely and worth a visit if you are in the area.  

 

The second concert was by the Isle of Wight Cantata Choir, performing John Rutter's Magnificat and a selection of opera choruses. The venue was 'Aspire', Ryde, which is a former church now used as a community centre. It is in dire need of a lick of paint inside, but is a lovely venue none the less. I thoroughly enjoyed the Magnificat and thought the choir sang beautifully. In the second half they sang opera choruses by Bizet, Tchaikovsky, and Rossini, with solos by the talented Tressa Lambert. Tressa also performed a selection of solos by Flanders and Swan, and Gershwin among others. Finally, she performed the 'Flower Duet' with Rachel Tweddle, the choirs' conductor. A thoroughly enjoyable evening.

 

Altar detail, Aspire.

Roof detail, Aspire.