Holme Cultram Abbey

The 18th of June at Holme Cultram Abbey saw a beautiful summers’ evening enhanced by the return after a two year absence of Dalston Male Voice choir, with the Gala Wind Trio and pianist Oliver Wicker.

The concert commenced with a popular old favourite, “It’s Now or Never”. This was a good choice as an opener as it allowed the clear harmonic lines of the male voices to be appreciated with their rich, sonorous tones. This was followed by Stephen Fosters, (of” Swanee River” and” Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair” fame) “Ring, Ring the Banjo” and an extract from “The Magic Flute” by Mozart. The rich and confident harmonies and soloist from the choir showed that the valleys of Wales are easily rivalled by the plains of the Solway.

We were then introduced to pianist Oliver Wicker who changed the mood with two Preludes by Debussy. This was a dazzling, competent performance, with a wide range of harmonies and dynamics contrasting with sparkling melodies in a true impressionist style, which transported the imagination to foreign parts.

The Gala Trio, consisting of flute/piccolo, clarinet and oboe performed three movements from Christopher Ball’s “Four Dances”. Here was a performance that begged the question, why do we not here more works by Christopher Ball? The three movements were very different in style and the confident performing and crisp ensemble playing really brought to the fore the humour of much of the composition. There was exemplary handling of the challenging range of rhythmic diversity and the final movement, “Square Dance” was enhanced with the added brightness of the piccolo.

The first half was concluded by the choir performing four pieces. “Ride the Chariot”, a spiritual with again a solo from a member of the choir and “Shenandoah” which were both sung unaccompanied. These were confident performances, subtly directed by musical director Michael Deakin who has transformed the choir in to a group to rival the best. Then a highlight of the night, the sensitive playing of accompanist Lorraine Gash allowed the real talents of the choir to shine with beautiful, long and languid phrasing in “The Rose”, best known from the film of the same name. No concert of male voices would be complete without Gilbert and Sullivan and “With Cat-like tread” the first half was brought to a close.

The second half kicked off again with the choir. With four pieces the “Stenka Razin” allowed us to enjoy yet another soloist from the choir and in “Love could I only tell thee” we could relish how much the choir has developed with ranges that really challenged the voices but was performed with real skill and confidence.

The Gala Trio returned, this time with Oliver, to perform “Caprice sur des airs danois et russes” by Camille Saint-Saens. This masterful performance with subtle interplay between the instruments and passing of melodic lines showed a high level of communication between the players.

The concert drew to a conclusion with the choir giving us four more pieces. “Where could I go but to the Lord” and “Water of Tyne” being followed with a humorous arrangement of the traditional American song “Old McDonald had a farm” which had the audience in stitches. The final piece was “Speed your Journey” from Verdi’s ‘Nabucco’, enthusiastic performing giving us a confident finale.

After the applause died down we were treated to an encore of “Softly I will leave you”, sung with passion which left the audience wanting more.