Selly Park Singers
Saturday 14th June 2025
On a beautiful afternoon, a capacity audience filled Bournville’s Church of St Francis of Assisi for a delightful programme by Selly Park Singers of song and organ music, directed by Paul Carr and accompanied by Thomas Howell. Celebrating both the church’s centenary and the 300th anniversary of Vivaldi’s famous Four Seasons, the Singers are one of 55 choirs across the world who jointly commissioned a new work by the composer Joanna Forbes L’Estrange, which re-imagines the four Vivaldi Violin Concertos as a choral work – A Season to Sing. Texts reflecting the seasons from a range of biblical and secular sources combine with a variety of approaches to create a lively and varied work based on the familiar music of the original concertos, appealing both to singers and audience alike. Performances are taking place throughout the year, and this performance was not only the Birmingham premiere of the work, but also of the West Midlands.
…excellent diction and precision was most effective in the first movement of Winter.
The choir clearly enjoyed performing A Season to Sing, with real commitment and enthusiasm, and evidently relishing the surprises along the way – whistling for birds in Spring, and the ‘body percussion’ sounding astonishingly like a rising wind and increasingly heavy rain for the storm in Summer. Although intended primarily for amateur choirs, A Season has some challenges. Some parts work better than others, with some setting texts which do not always sit comfortably within the music, making it difficult to bring the expressiveness that the singers nevertheless worked hard to convey, while some stratospherically high notes were a challenge for the sopranos, who nevertheless tackled them bravely. Great attention was paid to dynamics, particularly where phrases were repeated, and excellent diction and precision was most effective in the first movement of Winter, where text describing ice and cold was wonderfully clear and staccato to mirror the music. The work also relies heavily upon the accompanying organ, to provide the material in the Vivaldi concertos which is not included in the choir parts: this was expertly and effectively played by Thomas Howell to complete the musical picture.
Between the Summer and Autumn movements, Thomas Howell also performed J.S. Bach’s Concerto in A minor After Vivaldi BWV 593. This was a perfect choice, the movements reflecting the moods and themes of the Four Seasons movements. The recently restored organ at St Francis was a delight to hear, with Thomas Howell making excellent use of its colours – the slow movement evoked the hazy heat of late summer, ending with the quietest possible whisper, while the opening filigree of the last movement was truly sparking.
All in all, it was a most enjoyable and interesting programme, well performed by all concerned, and very well received by the audience.
Barbara Hathaway
