[ Home ] [ 2005 Concerts ] [ 2007 Concerts ] [ 2006 Concerts ] 

St John the Baptist Church - France Lynch

Click here for an unsolicited testimonial from an American member of the audience!

I have listened to this group of singers over many years and I am pleased to report that they have defiantly improved with age! Philip Colls has created a good balanced group of singers who can perform the music, not just adequately, but extremely well, and the Cappella Singers have rightly earned their reputation as one of the premier choirs of Gloucestershire.

Tonight's programme was a very typical Cappella mixture of old and new with an emphasis on springtime. The first group of pieces, representing the religious element of the programme, were nicely contrasted and gave the choir an opportunity to demonstrate how well they can perform complicated contrapuntal music. Philip's training clearly pays great dividends; the singers' diction was so clear and the parts so balanced that both the words and each individual line of music could be heard with ease. Positioning the choir at the east end of the church clearly helped in projecting a full and well-blended sound.

The second group were all about spring. Tempus ad est floridum sung to the tune we know as Good King Wenceslas, with a drum to give it added rhythm, was followed by another early piece from Reading Abbey; the famous Sumer is icumen in. Two madrigals from Elizabethan England continued the spring mood with their typical 'fa la la' refrain contrasting with Three Songs of Springtime by Ernest Moeran.

Edvard Grieg's Springtime with the choir humming while the tune was sung over the top always produces a magical effect ,and nicely set off the three very different folk songs by Vaughan Williams. With these latter, I really thought the choir succeeded in producing that real English sound so much needed by this music.

The short instrumental items were both amusing and very appropriate played on cello and guitar by Geoffrey March and David Butcher, both choir members. And the audience were properly amused by the poems read by Peter Farley and Frankie March.

The concert ended with some real lollypops, We'll gather Lilacs and Secret Love, both of which were well-appreciated by the audience. This was a well thought out programme, with something for everyone to enjoy, and it is to be hoped that it will not be too long before the Cappella Singers visit France Lynch again.

Brian Newson.