Christmas Cracker 2021 

  St James Church, Woburn Rd.  Saturday 3pm 11 December 2021.

  Conductor: Mark Carter    


marigolds

 
This concert was able to take place as the Covid traffic light requirements for events had very recently moved to orange.

These appropriately coloured flowers were part of a planting between the Church and the library. 


And so, to the music...

The concert opened with Shostakovich's "Folk Feast" from the Gadfly Suite and Khachaturian's "Adagio" from Spartacus. These pieces were supposed to be played at our cancelled Symphony Workshop weekend earlier in the year so the orchestra was pleased to be able to perform these works at last. Then followed the premier of "The Night Before" by HVO's principal viola player Craig Drummond-Nairn.  Corelli's "Christmas Concerto" performed by some of the string players continued the Christmas theme.  The second half opened with Bizet's "Farandole" and then the audience were able to enjoy Christmas carols and other Christmas pieces including "Sleigh Ride" before the concert concluded with a energetic performance of selections from "Pirates of the Caribbean".

This was a concert at Christmas and many of the orchestra are in festive wear. The following photographs show the energy of Shostakovich and the drama of Khachaturian.

orchestra

 orchestra from seconds

strings

Some members of the strings meet as a chamber music group and they played Corelli's Concerto grosso.
This is older music and included harpsichord accompaniment.

small string group
In the second half, there was much to play for the wind and brass sections.  
horns woodwinds
 

As mentioned in Mark's introduction to "Sleigh Ride", two unusual sounds are called for in this piece - the sound of the whip created by two clappers which you can see at the very back ...  whip crack


... and the sound of the horse's whinney as the sleigh passes.

neigh

The orchestra receiving the final applause and being very happy to have completed a concert. 

final applause
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