Summer concert in St John's Methodist Church, Settle

What better way to begin July, renewing our hopes for a refreshing summer, than with this highly enjoyable concert, a clear demonstration that high standard amateur music-making is very much alive and well in these parts! Music draws the audience in, helping them feel part of things, when the performers are not only very well directed but clearly enjoy their music. Such was the case throughout this concert. Hopefully it will encourage more people who enjoy singing to join the Langcliffe Singers.

The 50 strong choir, including soloists Sheila Hartley, Tom Emmett, Richard Williams, Margaret Coleman, Max and Catherine Packard and Lindsay Young, gave us a wonderfully varied programme of beautiful, deeply felt music requiring much versatility. Darren Everhart brought all his high-level professional experience to making this such a memorable concert, sensitively supported by accompanists Brian Heaton (whose 30 years with the choir was deservedly acknowledged) and Ellie Everhart. The opening song, ‘Summer is icumen in’ (dating back to 1250), set the scene for a truly ‘democratic’ and interactive occasion! With the choir lining up around them, the audience were invited to join in, singing the song as a ‘round’. Throughout the rest of the evening the choir took us on a fascinating journey though the music of Finzi, Stanford, Australian Percy Grainger (to mark the Ashes cricket series!), Gibbons, Vaughan Williams, and Gershwin. The choir ably sang his ‘Summertime’ with just the right amount of jazzy blues style. Overall, the sound was very well balanced, the soft ‘piano’ singing was truly beautiful, and the solo performances were of a high standard. The democratic nature of the concert was reinforced by the fact that all the pieces were chosen by members of the choir – a lovely touch.

In these dark times we so need music to help us break loose, hope, sing and be free. Well done indeed, music-makers. You helped us reach for the stars!

Review by Paul Fisher

40th anniversary concert in Giggleswick School Chapel

I had the pleasure of joining nearly 200 members of the audience and around 80 performers, in Giggleswick School Chapel, to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Langcliffe Singers and what a joy it was.  The Musical Director Darren Everhart conducted the Choir, a professional orchestra and soloists, and had them all playing and singing at the top of their game.  The sound was pleasantly balanced throughout; a concert of contrasts, light and shade, delicate and strident.  

The first half of the concert opened with members of the orchestra playing Gabrieli’s Canzon almost as a fanfare, welcoming us all to the celebration.  The concert continued with Choir and Orchestra beautifully performing Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus followed by his Laudate Dominum and Haydn’s magnificent Te Deum.  

The second half was devoted to Mozart’s Requiem.  Whilst the programme reminds us that a Requiem is a Roman Catholic mass for the dead, this Requiem was joyous and uplifting, the Communio particularly rousing.  The Choir, Orchestra and Soloists: Jessica Harper (Soprano), Wendy Sharrock (Alto), David Woods (Tenor) and Robert Gildon (Bass), all acquitted themselves superbly and made this a memorable evening.  Probably one of the best concerts that I have ever attended, it would not have been out of place on a London Stage.  

The hard work that had prepared the choir for this performance was obvious and the audience showed their appreciation at the end with lengthy applause.  I could spend time here giving you the history of the choir, but that information is readily available elsewhere save to say that previous Choir Directors were there to help celebrate or had sent best wishes; they can be very pleased with their legacy.  A joy and a privilege to be there and to send the choir very best wishes for the next 40 years.

Review by Allan Evans

Christmas concert in Settle Parish Church

What better place to go to escape the winter chill on Saturday 17th December 2022 than Settle Parish Church to hear the Langcliffe Singers with Christmas favourites, old and new. A concert entitled “Tidings of Joy” and indeed it was so!

The programme started with Part I of Handel’s oratorio, The Messiah. It is 70 years, almost to the day, that as a young teenager I was taken to hear the Messiah with the famous soprano soloist  Isobel Baillie. I’ve heard many live performances, with professional and amateur choirs, since and I came to the conclusion some years ago that one can judge from the first few parts of the oratorio whether the performance is going to be worth listening to or not. 

The Overture, curtailed in this performance because of time restraints, was a superb opening from the organist Shaun Turnbull. The first tenor solos were clear and smooth, ably sung by Felix Packard and Tom Emmett.  And then came the first chorus for the full choir “And the Glory of the Lord”! It was a stunner, - no nerves and no hesitation from all parts. The crucial moment, which can affect the whole performance it if goes awry, is the sopranos hitting the top A. This was done with ease, so I knew it would be an evening to remember.

The rest of the Messiah flew by in a blur of blissful listening. All the soloists played their part with panache and sensitivity in the Messiah and in the other pieces, and are members of the choir, so ably led by conductor Darren Everhart. Darren also let the audience have their sing, as we were invited to join in a rousing Hallelujah Chorus to end the first part of the concert.

The soloists for this concert were the sopranos Anne Beasley, Margaret Coleman and Sheila Hartley, contralto Lindsay Young, and tenors Tom Emmett, Kenn Green and Felix Packard.

The bass soloist, Richard Williams, whose performance of the recitative and air (The people that walked in darkness) was particularly moving and a foretaste of his excellent rendering of the long solo parts in Gerald Finzi’s “In Terra Pax” in the second part of the programme. This not-so-well known piece, written in 1913, was probably the most difficult in the evening’s repertoire. But Langcliffe Singers, with soloists Sheila Hartley and Richard, were undaunted and gave us a stimulating performance.

“Christmas Day” by Gustav Holst was next. It is a delightful piece with many familiar carols following each other in a combination which is both unusual and memorable. The diction was excellent which made listening easy, particularly when The First Nowell is sung simultaneously with other well known carols.

The final piece, which was Vaughan Williams’ popular “Fantasia on Christmas Carols”, concludes with the Sussex Carol which brought an enjoyable and entertaining evening to a close. Definitely an evening to remember and one to start the Christmas celebrations in style.

Craven Herald review link

Handel’s Messiah performed by the Langcliffe Singers and guests, Settle Parish Church, 18/12/21

Saturday night in Settle. What shall we do? For less than a fiver we could download a world-class recording of Handel’s Messiah, pause it when Strictly comes on, pause it again for the news, and finally fast-forward to the grand finale before retiring. Or we could pay twice that to miss Strictly (the final!) and turn up at Settle Church to sit through a two-hour-long amateur performance. It’s cold and foggy to boot, we’d have to be mad. Apparently there’s no shortage of lunatics in Settle though, because around a hundred of us did just that. And to cap everything, we were each handed the score of the Hallelujah Chorus as we came in. Some mistake surely? Then the concert began, and after an organ overture, tenor Philip O’Connor began to sing. The word ‘quiet’ is perhaps an odd one to use of a singer with a rich, resonant voice, but it’s appropriate somehow. A few minutes earlier everyone had been chattering in excited anticipation, and now here he was, setting the scene with quiet authority. ‘Comfort ye my people.’ This is going to be good. Perhaps we’re not so mad after all.

 

I have to admit a personal bias. I sang with the Giggleswick Choral Society ten years ago when Darren Everhart – now musical director of Langcliffe Singers – was running it. Both choirs consist of amateurs whose only qualification is an ability to turn up. Which we did, because rehearsals, with Maestro Everhart, were huge fun, and we hated to miss them. Not running-about-being-silly fun, but this-is-a-superb-piece-of-music-and-we’re-going-to-make-a-fist-of-it fun. Not frivolous fun, serious fun.  (‘Basses, that was a very fine B flat, very fine. One tiny point – it should have been a C.’) The man has other talents, not least the ability to attract top-quality professional soloists. What’s in it for them? It can’t be the money, they’ll only be getting a fraction of their usual fee. But M. Everhart has a well-earned reputation for bringing good music to the people, and under his direction, it’s going to be magical, a very special event, one which no-one wants to miss. So on Saturday, on loan from the Royal Opera House perhaps, or La Scala Milan, we had soprano Sarah Fox, mezzo-soprano Elinor Carter, tenor Philip O’Connor, bass-baritone Robert Gildon, and organist Shaun Turnbull. Now, putting professional singers with an amateur choir, that can’t work surely? But you have to remember that every large choir is an amateur one. You can’t pay each member of the Huddersfield Choral Society, unless perhaps you’re Elon Musk, and even he would blanche at the prospect. Amateur doesn’t mean bad, it means you’re doing it because you love it. Yes the Langcliffe Singers are amateurs, and yes they are very good.

When we came to the Hallelujah Chorus, M. Everhart brought us to our feet and we joined in. When you think about it, this is very generous. You work for months to create the best possible performance, and when you come to the grand finale, you throw any chance of perfection away, and hand things over to the mob. Volume goes up, yes, but accuracy goes down. (I’m sure someone in my pew missed a cue. Oh, was that me? Sorry.) Ultimately though, perfection isn’t the point. The joy of making music, that’s the point.

You’ll have gathered by now that I was impressed, so in keeping with my duties as critic, I should mention one or two tiny lapses. One of the basses never raised his eyes from his score, as if engrossed in a good book. Admittedly my gaze shifted to other things occasionally, but it always shifted back. I was intrigued. At some point, surely, he must get distracted by the man waving his arms about from the podium below? Alas, it was not to be. What else? Shaun Turnbull, though clearly an excellent organist, struggled valiantly with some of the technical problems of Settle Church’s organ. It is basically a fine instrument - Shaun achieved some beautiful colours from the limited sounds on offer – but it would be good to be able to offer visiting professionals a fully working organ. And that’s all I can think of. Everything else was stupendous; the choir, in all four parts, particularly the sopranos; Sarah Fox, Elinor Carter and Philip O’Connor, all in fine fettle. Best of all, Robert Gildon, a great bear of a man. In fact he’s of average build, but when he starts to sing, he doubles in size, I swear it. His voice came from somewhere well south of his toes, vibrated through his body and poured from a mouth tilted skywards, loosening fragments of plaster from the church roof, tiny flakes of which drifted down to settle unseen on the shoulders of the audience. A white Christmas.

Copyright © Paul Clark 2021

LANGCLIFFE SINGERS: ST JOHN’S CHURCH, SETTLE: 13/7/19

SUMMER BOUQUET:MUSIC FOR A SUMMER’S EVENING

A cleverly constructed programme of madrigals from 16th and 17th centuries, inter-twined with a range of appropriate readings, this was certainly a display of which to be proud.  Madrigals are essentially secular songs arranged for four to six voices and vary widely in subject matter while being skilfully created to allow each voice (or group of voices) to blend or work in a way which complements the other parts.  As so often is the case with artistic endeavours, the real talent lies in making something so complex to master sound so very simple – this the Langcliffe singers did with great style and compliments must go to the hard work of choir members, their conductor Nigel Waugh and accompanist Brian Heaton for their achievements in this respect, for they provided a veritable garland of summer music and in doing so managed to transport the listener back to another place and time.  The journey began with a song familiar to many present who recalled “Early One Morning” from their own school days when it was a popular piece on schools’ radio broadcasts. From childhood we travelled further back to the days of “Olde England” – which probably was never as pretty as we are led to believe – with “Now is the Month of Maying”.  Although madrigals are short pieces they are extremely intricate and much like the metaphysical poetry of the later 17th century which carries very convoluted ideas in a short space, the music too requires concentration and focuses on examination of human emotions and relationships in great detail. Consequently we were treated to a wonderful posy of songs about the joys and trials of being in love and the nature of love itself. These included a shimmering performance of Orlando Gibbons’ “The Swan” as well as Thomas Morley’s “I love, Alas, I love thee” which while delightful and praising his current love is rather disparaging about his former lady, a bit like a modern facebook post which praises one at the expense of another! Perhaps this bitter jibe was the thorn amongst the roses in the bouquet. The ethereal “Lullaby, my sweet little baby” by William Byrd also provided a very pure counterpoint to the overblown roses of courtly love in its examination of the birth of Christ.  Interspersed amongst the songs, like greenery providing structure in a floral display, were a number of poetic readings and again the readers should be congratulated on their thoughtful delivery of what, in many cases, were both difficult and very well known pieces. It is never easy to bring new life to something which everyone believes that they know but there were very many valiant efforts to achieve this goal, not least Audrey Daley’s immaculate rendition of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 where a very practical lover points out that “his mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” but goes on to praise her rarity and that this makes her more precious. In any bouquet it is the addition of the unexpected and the range of flowers from wild meadow blossoms to cultivated show pieces and the way they work together which creates the overall impression of beauty, and so it was fitting to end the evening with a piece as light and frothy as the gysophila so regularly found in bridal flowers, the stunning “It was a lover and his lass”. An accomplished performance to bring the evening to a sparkling close.

ARISEN: MUSIC FOR EASTER - lANGCLIFFE SINGERS

ST ALKELDA'S CHURCH : 13/4/19

There is a temptation when reviewing a choir concert to spend all the piece writing about the magnificence of the singing, the dedication of the members, the purity of the soloists and the wonderful way in which the choir's voices blend together. All of which is perfectly in order in this instance. However, what is often overlooked is the contribution of others to ensure the high standard of the final performance, which is why I want to make particular mention of four gentlemen whose efforts lifted this evening well above the norm. The first of these is seventeen year old trumpeter Ewan Hudson, whose playing added so atmospherically to the works by Handel which concluded the evening. His performance in the aria "The Trumpet Shall Sound" was particularly effective. The second is accompanist Brian Heaton, whose work is normally eclipsed in concerts when the final performance is more generally accompanied by the organ - however on this occasion the majority of the works were accompanied by Brian, as they are in the many hours of rehearsal prior to the event. It really was a joy to see him taking centre stage. The third member of the group was Paul Fisher, local organist and composer who created a work specially for the choir and then also took part in the performance. Finally, conductor and director of music, Nigel Waugh who selected the programme and whose efforts clearly inspired the choir in his choice of pieces as well as shaping their actual performance. The programme itself was cleverly constructed and thought provoking; celebrating the Easter story from the solemnity and sadness of Good Friday, through to the joyful resurrection and triumph of Easter Sunday and on to the glorious acclamation of Christ enthroned in Heaven. It was also an opportunity to encounter a range of musical periods and styles, from the Catholic Eucharistic hymns of William Byrd in Elizabethan England, through the German motets of JS Bach in 18th century Europe to the very modern work of Paul Fisher before culminating in the best known pieces of the evening, a selection of movements from Handel's Messiah.  This really was an evening guaranteed to offer music for all classical music tastes and was also a brilliant showcase and celebration , yet again, of the talent on offer locally.

SETTLE COMMUNITY CAROL CONCERT

SETTLE PARISH CHURCH: 16.12.18

As a child one of my greatest pleasures was opening a selection box, a chance to enjoy all my favourite treats and maybe experience one or two also with which I was less familiar. In many ways this community concert is very similar, there are certain things which you can guarantee will be there and also there's bound to be something a bit unexpected. Featuring a range of the many musical groups and talented individuals in Settle it is always an event which offers something for every taste and features a range of styles, but the one thing which unites them all is their determination to celebrate Christmas and to share their own enthusiasm for music. This year's programme featured two organists, and began with Graham Toft's stunning interpretation of the Geoffrey Shaw's arrangement Fantasia on Adeste Fidelis, an exceptionally complex piece which allowed us to experience the organ being played at full power.  This was followed by two traditional pieces by Settle Voices, their folk style being particularly suited to "The Boars Head Carol" and "Good King Wencelas".  Paul Fisher provided both a change of mood and season with the organ solo "Punting on the Cam" and then performed a swift change back with a French inspired arrangement of "Adeste Fidelis", proving once more just how even the most familiar piece can reveal hidden depths in the hands of each individual composer.  From French to German with Settle Amateur Operatic Society's peformance of "Stille Nacht", as featured in this year's production of "Oh What a Lovely War", this was followed by a taster for next year's production of "Sister Act" with a great rendition of the classic "I Will Follow Him". The wonderful harmonies of Langcliffe Singers predominated in their trio of songs, including two pieces by John Rutter and an exceptionally haunting arrangement of "In the Bleak Mid-winter".  The first half was brought to an exquisite ending by the inimitable style of Octameron, who moved effortlessly from the atmospheric contemporary piece "The Angel's Carol" to the "Earl of Salisbury's Carol", dating from the Renaissance and through to the ever-popular Sleighride before concluding with a lively arrangement of "See Amid the Winter's Snow".  The delights however were far from over as the second half of the programme featured the talents of the Swing Band, who along with their soloist Rachael, set the rafters ringing with a programme which included some very lively takes on familiar carols, perennial Christmas favourites such as White Christmas, a sparkling "Santa Baby" and a full scale glittering and rocking "Rockin' Robin" before ending on a rousing race through a medley of well known tunes - complete with audience participation - in "Christmas Festival!". Truly a feast of talent was on offer and the many performers in both sections offered up a banquet of musical pleasures.

LANGCLIFFE SINGERS: GIGGLESWICK SCHOOL CHAPEL 14/4/18

MAKE A JOYFUL NOISE UNTO THE LORD

 In the year that marks a 100 years since the birth of Leonard Bernstein, the Langcliffe Singers compiled a programme to celebrate American music. The concept of American choral music is still very young and to put that into context, the building of the school chapel itself - between 1897-1901 - predated all the music being performed. Therefore the concert was very much a case of that odd hybrid, "modern classical". 

The evening opened with a performance of Randall Thompson's "Alleluia", and while the word alleluia is normally sung as a joyful noise of praise to the Lord this is certainly not the case in this piece. Although the only lyrics are Alleluia and a final Amen, the tone was more solemn than celebratory and there was a pervading sense of sadness throughout the piece. This did however imbue it with an ethereal beauty and impression of reflection and meditation.  

This theme continued elsewhere in the programme, not least in the second part of the evening where the programme comprised Samuel Barber's "Agnus Dei" and Morten Lauridsen's "Lux Aeterna".  Barber's "Agnus Dei" is deceptively simple, but immensely powerful and filled with passion and despair before resolving into a haunting final phrase of "give us peace" balanced by an almost whispered "have mercy upon us". I have often noticed at concerts that when there is a particularly moving performance there seems to be a collective sigh from the audience as the final notes fade and before the applause comes. This was one of those moments when the sigh seemed to linger before a hugely appreciative audience responded enthusiastically. 

Never ones to shirk a challenge, Langcliffe Singers excelled themselves by taking on Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms. This intricate piece with Hebrew text, was certainly a highlight of the evening. Based on Judaic liturgy but with a real sense of theatre it more than did what it promised in the opening line where it claims "I will rouse the dawn!" The outstanding percussion alone was enough to guarantee this, with cymbals and drums very much to the fore. There were also some very moving passages, particularly the harp accompaniment to the solo at the beginning of Psalm 23 and the lingering closing line of the same psalm. 

Solos also made up part of the programme with an unusual setting of Cole Porter's "Night and Day" played upon the harp. Normally this is a passionate piece, underscored to echo the throbbing tom-toms of the lyrics but here it was transformed to something far more delicate and ephemeral.  Carl Ives' "Variations on America" also provided an unusual organ solo where there were some unusual takes on a familiar tune. While some may argue that there were not sufficient variation in the variations themselves, there is no doubt that this is a challenging piece designed to test the prowess of the organist and also reflecting a somewhat irreverent take on the familiar. I am sure I was not the only one to be suddenly ambushed by a vision of Her Majesty and Duke of Edinburgh on steam galloper horses as the strains of the national anthem morphed into a fairground calliope ride. 

Special congratulations to all the soloists, both instrumental and vocal for their efforts throughout and also to the conductor for his enthusiastic performance in this complex programme.

The evening concluded with the beautiful "Lux Aeterna", again a haunting, timeless piece and it was fitting that the concluding text for the evening should be the same as the two words which began it, "Alleluia, Amen" - followed, naturally, by a very deep and appreciative sigh.