Festival Concert

Asygarth Church

WHAT a difference a venue makes. At last year’s Swaledale Festival, the choir sang in a different church, placed in eight rows of six, in a long narrow chancel, behind the arch, with the orchestra in front of them. They strove to be heard.

This year, with five rows of ten singers in front of the chancel arch, and with the orchestra spread wide, it was an entirely more satisfactory evening for singers and audience alike.

A happy choir makes a better sound, and the three diverse works in the programme were all sung with evident pleasure. Director Hugh Bowman is to be congratulated on his choice of music.

He was splendidly supported by Greg Smith accompanying the jolly Gloria by Rutter on the organ. Smith then moved to the grand piano for the interesting choice forming the centrepiece of the concert, a set of poems by Robert Frost set to music by Randall Thompson, one of the group of American composers including Aaron Copeland and Samuel Barber whose neglected music is being resurrected.

These were beautifully sung, with tender tone throughout, and diction so good we hardly needed our crib sheets of the words.

The Haydn Mass was a lively piece; this time Smith was on chamber organ to join an excellent orchestral ensemble and four well matched soloists – Charlotte Jackson, Emma Wardell, Paul Smith and Richard Brickstock.

They are well-known to the Swale Singers and never disappoint. A highlight was the quiet, lyrical Agnus Dei, when the quartet was accompanied by pizzicato strings, gradually joined by the other instruments. The choir sent us home with a vigorous demand for peace – not a whispered Dona Nobis Pacem, but full-volume plea, with brass and percussion adding to the martial sound.

Sylvia Crookes

Monkey!

Reeth Memorial Hall

JOHN Roberts runs Swaledale Festival regulars PuppetCraft, carving the puppets himself.

With his assistants Bernie and Mandi, he helped children (and their adults) make lanterns one morning. When the hall was blacked out, lights turned off and the torches lit inside the lanterns, the effect was magical.

Then tables were cleared, wiped and put away, the floor swept, an enormous embroidered and decorated carpet spread and chairs set out round the edges.

Back in came an audience of more than 80. Those who could sat on the floor; those with stiffer joints used the chairs.

Michael Rosen wrote the script of Monkey! basing it on a classic Chinese folk story. Roberts and his assistants are very skilled. Marionettes come alive for them. It did not matter we could see people pulling the strings, that we knew the river was a fall of blue fabric.

Supported by Bernie’s evocative and atmospheric live music, the illusions worked.

We watched Monkey being born from a stone egg at the start of his adventures. Hailed as king by other monkeys, he travelled to the corners of the earth in search of the secret of everlasting life, learning to transform himself and to fly on clouds, stealing peaches from three pretty Chinese maidens and fighting a dragon on the way.

A crowd of children hovered around the set and the puppets for a long time, not wanting to leave the magical world in which they had spent their day.

Susan Perkins

Leyburn Band

St Andrew’s Church, Aysgarth

THE night was cold, but the church interior was warm – warm enough for a passing solitary ticketless hiker, a teacher from Cambridge up for the festival, to be enticed inside to hear Leyburn Band.

Unlike some churches, St Andrew’s is well suited to concerts; it has a friendly acoustic and changes in level enable viewers at the back to see the performers, who also have the advantage of being on a wide step above the floor of the nave.

Musical director George Lundberg’s informative and interesting introductions put pieces in context, so the audience was not wondering "where have I heard that before?"

The programme ranged from Paganini to the Platters, including show tunes, belting ballads, a splendid performance of Goff Richards’ cheerful march Barnard Castle, an amusing arrangement by Philip Buttall of Rossini’s William Tell overture and the reflective American Trilogy as encore.

Lundberg’s daughter Rebecca, a graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music and now head of music at Copley Academy in Stalybridge, conducted with precise, elegant and energetic movements. Her hands were expressive, her whole body danced. She had the fully focused attention of the audience and – more importantly – of the sparkling band, which gave a performance well above expectation.

Last year, Leyburn won the 2014 Brass in Ripon contest and in the Hardraw Scar contest not only won its class but also took prizes for best march, best hymn and best bass section. The teacher from Cambridge declared it fully merited its place in the Swaledale Festival.

Susan Perkins