A Tapestry of Sound
Baritone: Edward Price
Organ: Philip Scriven
Programme (Words for Audience Carols here):
Ledger: Adam Lay Ybounden
Carter: Angelus ad Virginem
Shephard: Never Weather-beaten Sail
Over the centuries the season of Advent has inspired a rich collection of musical offerings, marking the spiritual mystery of Christ's Second Coming as well as the more immediate earthly anticipation of Christmas! Most of the pieces in this concert were from the popular collection Advent for Choirs (OUP), with music ranging from the 16th to the 20th centuries. These were complemented by Vaughan Williams' skilful weaving of traditional English Carols into his much-loved Fantasia on Christmas Carols - a tapestry of sound if ever there was one.
Baritone Edward Price (see podcast below) and Organist Philip Scriven joined us and our Conductor Richard Pearce for a memorable start to the Advent season.
Reviews
"Singers Create a Tapestry of Sound in Alton Church"
An edited version of the following appeared in the Farnham Herald online on 10 December 2024:
Waverley Singers concert ‘A Tapestry of Sound’ on 30 November in St Lawrence Church, Alton, certainly lived up to its name. The Choir’s conductor, Richard Pearce, likes to set his singers a challenge, which this time consisted of performing no fewer than 16 very different pieces of music, in a wide range of styles from across the centuries, all celebrating the mystery of Advent and the coming of Christmas.
From the simple plainsong of the Advent Prose (Rorate Coeli), sung by BBC Singer and baritone soloist Edward Price, which opened the concert, to Charles Wood’s mighty cathedral anthem O Thou, The Central Orb that preceded the final audience carol, the choir’s ability to perform in such a variety of genres, supported as usual by the admirable Philp Scriven on the organ, was impressive.
The main work, Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Christmas Carols, is itself a skilful and poignant weaving of some of the less familiar traditional English carols. Each of these tells part of the story of the coming of Christmas, and the solo parts were beautifully and expressively sung by Edward Price, words and music together in perfect harmony.
The audience of some 200 also rose magnificently to the challenge of singing, alongside old favourites, a less well-known carol: Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence, (arr. Stephen Cleobury), with its invocation for humankind to stand ‘with fear and trembling’ faced with God’s descent to earth: a powerful image to remind us of the weight of this festive season.
Gallery
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