Fireworks in the Town Hall
Congleton Town Hall, 5th November 2023Review by Ken Ratcliff
(Congleton Chronicle 16th November 2023)
On bonfire night, fireworks stole the evening’s peace in Congleton’s parks and gardens but these were not alone, as, at the same time in the town hall, there were musical fireworks, too
Congleton Choral Society’s autumn concert was taking place with sizzlers, bangers and rockets, in the music of Rossini, with the mayor’s spectacular jacket supplying the colours of a bonfire and roman candles, much to everyone’s delight.
Before the Rossini, however, the concert opened with the choir performing a deeply moving motet by Palestrina, dating from the 16th century. With absolutely no instrumental accompaniment, the four interleaved voice parts of this sublime short piece traced a gorgeous harmonious setting of its Latin words.
It was an extraordinarily moving start to the concert, the choir demonstrating its sound musicality, the town hall revealing its excellent acoustic in such music; a real tour de force.
The main work in the concert was Rossini’s “Petite Messe Solennelle”, which he wrote late on in his life, but which still features the excitement, the fizz, and the same musical spices, as in his more well-known “William Tell Overture” and his opera “The Barber of Seville”.
Even though the piece takes the form of a liturgical mass, his old mischievous, irresistible rhythms, emotions, contrasts and surprises still permeate it, making it more like an opera, almost a piece of theatre, with expressive Italianate arias, as well as respectful devotion in the appropriate places.
The texts of the “Creed”, the “Gloria”, the “Sanctus” etc, offer such good excuses for arias and choruses featuring the boisterous, the tender, the declamatory, the prayerful, the majestic, the dramatic, and the humble. Fortuitously, the sound of fireworks outside supplied a suitable counterpoint between phrases.
This glorious event featured four solo voices: Sarah Hughes (based in Congleton), Kathleen Wilkinson and Philip Clieve (both Lancastrians), and Miles Taylor (from Yorkshire). Instrumental accompaniment (apart from the gratuitous external fireworks percussion) was by Tomek Pieczora and Rachel Fright, and the whole was fused into a superb ensemble, rhythmical and dynamic, by the choral society’s music director Tom Newall.
Rossini ‘s “Petite Messe Solennelle” turns out to be not overly churchy, rarely solemn, and most certainly not petite, but what a great piece for the ambience and acoustic of the town hall, and as a vehicle for the skills and panache of the team of choir, soloists, instrumentalists and conductor. The performers certainly did the town proud.
