Chrissie

Visiting other worlds will surprise but also fascinate.  This was a Christmas concert and some things were from the world of everyday Christmas concerts and so were just lovely joy, especially the singalong on Hark the herald angels sing and O come all ye faithful.  They are both wonderful songs and well known and a huge joy when you are singing, doubly so when accompanied by the likes of the Luminescence Chamber Singers.  Our lines were not the complex harmonies of their choruses but enjoyable none-the-less.  But there were other worlds at this Christmas Classics concert.  The first tunes were the strangeness of pre-Renaissance music (as early as c.1370) where I noticed just one harmony, a simple 5th, but the melodies were exquisite and the rhythmic phrasings were challenging and the stratospheric high notes were just enthralling.  I was a bit dumbfounded that a Song of the nuns of Chester, after starting with females, had a second chorus with males, the lower tenors and basses, but then this is the modern world.  We got more modern with William Byrd ~1580 then through to contemporary takes on early music (not least one by local David Yardley) and generally on Christmas and arrangements of modern songs in an early, richly luminescent style to fit the choir.  There were actually 2 choirs: Luminescence in 6 or expanded to 9 (presumably written for 3 each of SATB) and the Luminescence Children's Choir in the balcony at the rear of Wesley Church, plus an occasional organist on Wesley's worthy organ.  So this was a period outing but also varied and even fun at times.  The singing, of course, was always impressive and sometimes to die for.  I enjoyed several solo segments, not least one from our guest, Alex, and both the extremes were thrilling at times, Veronica at the high end and Jack at the low end.  The chance to join in the singing and the lovely hymns reminds me of the season and has me longing to attend a few sung masses and other services to partake in the joy of singing in community but I doubt the accompaniment at the local midnight mass will be quite so capable.  So a challenging and satisfyingly arty take on the Christmas concert and much contemplated and enjoyed.

Luminescence Chamber Singers and Luminscence Children's Choir were led by Roland Peelman (conductor) and joined by Samuel Giddy (organ) and Valdas Cameron (percussion).  Our guest is Alexander Gorbatov (tenor).