The Winter Concert proved to be an excellent evening, writes David Gorodi - Director of Music.

The Orchestra opened the Winter Concert with the overture from Rossini's The Thieving Magpie. This is an exciting piece, some great melodies and of course a ‘Rossini crescendo’; there was some detailed phrasing and great dynamic control, together with a fiery last section - it was an excellent performance. The Piano Trio performed a movement from Beethoven's Trio No. 1, once again we heard some delightful phrasing as well as detailed ensemble work. The Choir as ever were brilliant, their acapella performance of Lauridsen's O Magnum Mysterium was breath taking. I really enjoyed the trumpet playing in Trumpet Carillon, with the lovely acoustics of the Memorial Hall it was something special. The Chamber Choir were outstanding, this particular blend and balance of voices we have at the moment is very rare; the fact that three members of this choir are also members of the National Choir of Great Britain is no accident. The Big Band were on fine form with Imogen Moore performing Smooth Operator, a really "cool" arrangement; Josh Teuber using a keyboard rather than a piano helped to bring the sound to life and a lovely saxophone solo was provided by Charlotte Mansergh too. Abagael Hyde finished the evening with her first performance with the Big Band, she sung Peggy Lee's I Love Being Here With You. Abs has a great voice just perfect for jazz, I'm sure we will hear a lot more from her over the coming year. Although there were many fantastic performances, my favourite was Ella Corlett and Rebecca Bracey's performance of Sir Henry Bishop's  "Lo! Hear The Gentle Lark" accompanied by the harpsichord and cello the girls were truly outstanding, the high Cs seemingly effortless from Ella and the fast runs on the flute from Rebecca were accurate and fluid; I don't think that anyone who heard this performance will forget it in a very long time. My congratulations to everyone involved.

A video (which was live-streamed on the website) and photo album of the Concert can be watched below.

David Gorodi – Director of Music