Seaford Scene August 2019

concentus ‘sang’
and lgb brass
‘played’ summer
‘The Greatest Show!’ And wasn’t it just! This opening
song dramatically caught the audience’s attention
and proved to be very aptly titled to describe the
whole concert, foretelling the many delights to come.
There was a marked sense of the audience being
fully engaged, involved and in good contact with the
performance, and their comments mirrored this: ‘best
concert yet’ , ‘really enjoyable’ , ‘superb’ , ‘wonderful
balance and partnership between choir and band’, ‘very
uplifting’ , ‘well-polished and professional’ , ‘so spirited –
wonderful’, and many more expressing their enjoyment
of the concert. There was prolonged applause
throughout as well as cheers for many pieces, and the
local press ran a headline declaring: ‘Concentus reaches
new heights with Brass’.
As ever there is room here to mention only a few of
the highlights of the evening. After the exhilarating
opening piece, ‘Goin’ Home’ from Dvorak’s ‘New
World Symphony’ provided a complete contrast
with the choir and band expertly using variations in
volume to bring out all the yearning for ‘Goin’ Home’.
The three soloists (all choir members) enhanced the
performance with the delicacy of their touch. It proved
a great favourite with the audience with more than one
person commenting on how this beautifully sung song
‘touched my heart’ or ‘brought tears to my eye’.
‘Phantom of the Opera’ showcased Musical Director
Adrian White’s skill in enabling his choir to draw out
the many shades of meaning and emotion held in the
words they sang – the controlling eerie presence of the
Phantom, Christine’s enthralment with him, her friend’s
concern for her, the marvellous vivacity of ‘Masquerade’
through to the shock of his apparent return in the final
words ‘He’s there! The Phantom of the Opera’. Adrian
and Jo Fowler (his assistant conductor) also gave the
audience a real treat and showed their great versatility in
singing the duet taken from ‘The Greatest Showman’ – ‘A
Million Dreams’.
Both of the medleys in the concert were commended
by the audience. ‘The Music of MGM’ was accompanied
by the talented Colin Hughes on keyboard (who
played for many of the choral pieces). The choir
showed its versatility in all of the seven songs featured,
with many rapid changes of pace, mood and volume.
The wistfulness of ‘Over the Rainbow’, the razzmatazz
of ‘That’s Entertainment’, the joy of being young, in love
and happy in ‘Singing in the Rain’ – all this and more
came over very clearly.
‘Rogers and Hammerstein on Broadway’ accompanied
by four very good soloists and the band was a great
hit with the audience, featuring thirteen songs from six
musicals. The choir took everybody on a roller-coaster
of sound with songs like ‘I’m gonna wash that man right
out of my hair’, ‘It might as well be spring’ and ‘The
sound of music’. Tenors and basses were first class in
the verve and attack they put into ‘There is nothing
like a dame’, while ‘You’ll never walk alone’ provided a
rousing finale to the piece.
Choir and band were skillfully blended throughout, the
band giving extra depth to the sound and feelings of
all of the songs where they joined the choir as in the
wonderfully eerie menacing sounds for ‘Phantom of
the Opera’, the tenderness and calm for ‘Goin’ Home’,
and the traditional ‘brass bandness’ in ’The Floral
Dance’ and in the concert’s closing number – ‘Sussex
by the Sea’. Director of the Band Ian Stewart – who
transcribed the choir’s choral music into scores suitable
for the band (no easy task!) – led them in four standalone
numbers. Of these a recent work, ‘Song of the
Night Sky’ by young composer Christopher Bond with
an excellent solo played by the equally young principal
cornet player Christina Kearley, was picked out for
particular praise by audience members as was the
traditional ‘Irish Tune from County Derry’.
Altogether an excellent performance by choir and
band, rewarded with prolonged applause and cheers.
The audience departed with hopes of more wonderful
concerts to come!
Sept ISSUE DEADLINE:
Tues 6th August
Please recycle this magazine
when you have finished with it.
136 Please mention Seaford Scene when contacting advertisers