The most accurate performance you will hear this Christmas in any music genre is Julie London’s 1963 recording of Fly Me To The Moon featured in the ‘Magic and Sparkle’ television ad.
Her intonation, rhythmic precision and forward motion are stunning, and the Choral Society came pretty close to this benchmark in this year’s Christmas Concert.
But then they had Brian Kay as guest conductor. Singer, radio and TV presenter as well as conductor and Huddersfield Choral Society Chorus Master from 1984 to 1993, he is one of the best.
Born Today (Hodie Christus Natus Est), the motet of 1619 by Jan Sweelinck – full of antiphonal exchanges and overlapping calls of ‘alleluia’ – and the contrasting Kwmbayah saw the Choral at their sonorous, disciplined, balanced best, and were tremendously loud when required!
Harold Darke’s In The Bleak Mid-Winter was sustained and articulate magic generated by Brian Kay, so short a piece but so effective, and then the mood was gone. This kind of concert is devilish difficult to sing as it has so many choral styles. The trick is tempo, and Brian Kay gets it spot on every time.
His relaxed, understated yet compelling conducting style drew from the Choral in O Holy Night the kind of performance you wait years to hear – long-breathed phrases with all accents and commas banished. A little touch of Brian in the night!
And the rousingly grand arrangement of O Holy Night was by Darius Battiwalla, the deputy chorus master and organist for the evening, who had so skilfully prepared the Choral for this concert.
The Choral’s junior choirs, under Susan Wilkinson, had unexpected depth of tone.
Their performance of Brian Knowles’ We Three Kings was terrific, with tricky chromatic passages spine-tinglingly done, and Ellie Salmon was a laid-back soloist with lovely legato in their version of Who Is He?
Junior school children also had a hand in producing the concert programme, competing to design the front cover, and the presentation to the winner saw Brian Kay, one of the tallest conductors around, stoop low to congratulate diminutive seven-year-old Eve Antoniades from Lindley CE Infants School.
Black Dyke Band, current British Open and National Champions again for the umpteenth time, have so many distinguished soloists and award winners among their number and produced playing of the highest international standard under their conductor Nicholas Childs who is now a Professor at the Royal Northern College of Music.
