{"id":1347,"date":"2019-07-05T09:07:59","date_gmt":"2019-07-05T08:07:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elyconsort.org.uk\/?p=1347"},"modified":"2019-07-05T09:08:05","modified_gmt":"2019-07-05T08:08:05","slug":"feel-the-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elyconsort.org.uk\/?p=1347","title":{"rendered":"Feel the Spirit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Date<\/strong>: Saturday 29th June, 2019
Venue<\/strong>: St Mary’s Church, Burwell
Programme<\/strong>: Feel the Spirit
Featuring<\/strong>: Ely Consort, Conductor ~ Matthew Rudd, Piano ~ Charlie Penn, Soham Village College Junior Choir, Jazz Quartet<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no doubt about it. Ely Consort is an amazing choir. Under the skilled director, Matthew Rudd, this choir demonstrated that it could maintain and develop beautiful, well-managed sounds. We were told that one piece actually had up to 14 parts, but even then, a real sense of control infused the massive sound. This control came from the inherent musicality of the conductor and the choir members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The programme was varied and impressive. The first half of the programme demonstrated the genuine skill of this phenomenal choir. Some of the works were particularly demanding but the expertise of these singers made light of every challenge. Highlights for me were \u2018Live with me and be my love\u2019 and \u2018It was a lover and his lass\u2019 from \u2018Songs and Sonnets from Shakespeare\u2019 by George Shearing. This music came from modern times and the accompaniment of piano (played by Charlie Penn<\/strong>) and bass (Joel Humann<\/strong>) brought the music alive. The fluidity and charm of \u2018Live with me \u2026\u2019 and the light frivolity of \u2018It was a lover \u2026\u2019 contrasted splendidly with the gorgeous harmonies of \u2018Who is Sylvia?\u2019 and the jagged impact of \u2018Fie on Sinful Fantasy\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two madrigals from the \u2018Triumphs of Oriana\u2019 (Elizabeth 1) were unaccompanied delights from Elizabeth 1\u2019s time and we particularly enjoyed \u2018A vesta was from Latmos Hill descending\u2019 after Matthew explained how the composer Thomas Weelkes used word painting within this composition giving it an intriguing mischievous touch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The climax of the evening came after the interval with John Rutter\u2019s \u2018Feel\u00a0the\u00a0Spirit\u2019. We certainly felt the\u00a0spirit\u00a0with this marvellous performance which included students from Soham Village College<\/strong>. The highlights in this composition for me were: \u2018Joshua fit the battle of Jericho\u2019, \u2018Steal away\u2019 and the\u00a0\u00a0final\u00a0spiritual\u00a0\u2018When the saints go marching in\u2019. We were soon in toe-tapping mood with the rousing opening bars of Joshua fit \u2026 . I am not ashamed to say the having suffered a recent bereavement, \u2018Steal away\u2019 was so beautifully arranged and sung that tears soon came to my eyes. Claire Stevenson<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0played her clarinet or saxophones magnificently and the joyous improvisatory nature of her contributions to \u2018Deep river\u2019 added a \u2018wow\u2019 factor. Derek Scurll<\/strong> enhanced the highly attractive rhythms with his drum playing.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was an excellent concert and we look forward to their next venture in Ely: \u2018Cherubini: Requiem\u2019 on Saturday 21st<\/sup> March 2020 in Ely Cathedral. Contact info@elyconsort.org.uk<\/a>  for more information.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Review<\/strong>: Rosemary Westwell<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Date: Saturday 29th June, 2019Venue: St Mary’s Church, BurwellProgramme: Feel the SpiritFeaturing: Ely Consort, Conductor ~ Matthew Rudd, Piano ~ Charlie Penn, Soham Village College Junior Choir, Jazz Quartet There is no doubt about it. Ely Consort is an amazing … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-concerts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2MCku-lJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elyconsort.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elyconsort.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elyconsort.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elyconsort.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elyconsort.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1347"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/elyconsort.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1349,"href":"https:\/\/elyconsort.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1347\/revisions\/1349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elyconsort.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elyconsort.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elyconsort.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}