The official website of The Beccles Choral Society

Our Next Concert



Our Year- so far
Choir photographed
making the recording
in the St Felix School

Copies of the CD are on sale at £10 at local outlets and at our concerts. At present these are also for sale in Prelude Records and St George’s Music shop in Norwich.

For our Summer concert we performed Handel’s Messiah. There is a review of this below.
At Christmas we performed a varied Christmas related programme with music by Vaughan Williams, Finzi, Rutter ,Scarlatti and Haydn.
Our spring concert was a successful performance of two requiems; Fauré and Duruflé
A Warm Welcome
A Warm Welcome is given to anyone who would like to join us . We are rehearsing for the summer concert. We meet every Tuesday in the Public Hall Beccles. For more details contact our secretary. (Details on CONTACT page) Below are some photographs taken at a recent rehearsal.


Hear us Sing
If you would like to hear us sing you can if you follow the link and choose the piece. These are from the Mozart Requiem and the recordings were made in Blythburgh Church ( Suffolk)
We have just added two tracks from our CD. Maria Marten, in an arrangement by Terry Cunnane, our accompanist, and Friday Market from Beccles 2000 by J Watts and D Scott.
Follow
http://beccleschoral.wikispaces.com/file/list
Simply click on the one you want to hear. These are MP3 files and will play on your computer’s player.

Tickets for our concerts are obtainable from:

 

The Gazette Bookshop,

The Walk, Beccles
  Beccles Stationery Shop
Smallgate, Beccles 
 

Willows of Beccles,
Smallgate, Beccles
 

Church Plain Stores

Church Plain, Loddon
 

Bridge Stores

Bridge St, Loddon

Press Review
Christmas Concert
On Saturday 13th December the Beccles Choral Society under their new conductor and Director, Philip Simms, performed a concert of music with a Christmas theme at St Michael's Church in Beccles. The concert also featured soprano soloist Prudence Sanders, tenor soloist Matthew Sprange, Harpist Danielle Perrett, and a small orchestra led by Gregory Eaton.

The concert opened with the choir performing Ralph Vaughan Williams Wassail Song, a call to celebration and merriment at Christmas time. This was followed by William's Fantasia on Christmas Carols with Baritone soloist Matthew Sprange making a return visit to St Michael's after singing in the choir's performance of The Messiah in the summer. Matthew's rich and lyrical voice was ideally suited to bring out the beauty of Vaughan Williams' beautiful setting of 'This is the truth sent from above,' and the choir coped well with Williams' choral writing that often seems to have an innate simplicity that hides its difficulties and challenges. This was followed by a performance of Gerald Finzi's 'In terra pax (In earth be peace),' that includes some settings of verses by the once Poet laureate Robert Bridges, beautifully sung by Matthew Sprange who showed the versatility of his voice, interwoven with the account of the shepherds from the Christmas story sung by the choir. The Finzi also included soprano Prudence Sanders who was standing in at the last minute for Natalya Romaniw who was unable to sing due to ill health.

The final work in the first half was John Rutter's 'Dancing Day' for women's voices and harp. Harpist Danielle Perrett performed the work with virtuosity and a wonderful feel for the music even though the temperature presented her with difficulties keeping the harp in tune, and the women of the choir proved that they could hold their own with some lively and colourful singing.

The second half began with Prudence Sanders as soloist in Alassandro Scarlatti's 'Christmas Cantata' for soprano and orchestra. Having had little time to prepare the piece Prudence still performed with great style and control showing herself to have a beautifully pure and lyrical voice. Prudence is only 21 and undoubtedly has a great career ahead of her.

The final work was Haydn's St Nicholas Mass in which the orchestra were augmented with Oboes, Bassoon and Horns and Terry Cunnane on the organ. The choir and orchestra's delight in singing and playing this work was self evident and the resulting performance was full of life and joy and colour. A memorable ending to a well balanced and excellently performed concert with a suitably festive flavour. Under Gregory Eaton's leadership the orchestra was excellent in accompanying and complimenting the choir, particularly excelling in the St Nicholas Mass. Philip Simms brings many years of experience as a musician and choral director to his role as director of the Beccles Choral Society. This concert shows that he has made an instant impact on the choir and we look forward to their performances in 2009.

After the concert there was a retiring collection in aid of the St Michael's Heating fund. The church is currently working to complete it's new heating system and by next Christmas the building should be much warmer for audience and performers alike.

John Beauchamp.
Press Review
Spring Concert
Performances to savour
Beccles Choral Society’s rendition of Requiems by Fauré and Duruflé under the batton of Philip Simms was made more poignant by the dedication to the memory of keen patron Dr Charles Sandbank, who died in December.
The flowing music of Fauré was beautifully sung by the choir and soprano soloist Belinda Bradley who gave a clear high performance of the “pie jesu”
Mathew Sprange, the baratone soloist was especially powerful in “libera me” which was followed by the choir transporting us gently with “In Paradisum”
The Duruflé Requiem was more demanding with its Gregorian chant and tough rythms and organist William Falcolner was excellent in his accompaniment to support the soloists and choir who again gave a fine performance.
Dr Anthony Bubb

The choir is now linked with www.suffolkmusic.co.uk
On their website are details of local concerts and choirs
We also link with the Waveney Valley Blog which gives details of local events.
See
www.waveneyvalleyblog.com

BECCLES CHORAL SOCIETY: President: The Mayor of Beccles; Vice-president: Muriel Hadingham; Musical director: Philip Simms; Rehearsal pianist: Terry Cunnane

 


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Site Updated 17th June, 2009