Leyland Band

Conductor: Michael Fowles
Warrington Male Voice Choir
Conductor: Russell Paterson
Parr Hall, Warrington
Saturday 17th December

Warrington Male Voice Choir certainly know how to put on a good concert.  Like many other musical organisations, their ability to give audiences what they want, means that year in, year out, they perform to packed houses, and at Christmas, they have to  undertake two nights of festivities to keep the natives happy.

On this occasion, Warrington MVC's Christmas Concert featured not just themselves, but soloist Karen Elliott and (although they didn't know it when they were booked in advance) the National Champion Band of Great Britain, Leyland.

It was, a real feast of seasonal music with all of the artistes in great form and whilst the choir might take a different view (the audience loved it) there were just perhaps more individual items on the night than was necessary. The odd jovial reference to a sweepstake on what time the concert was going to finish, maybe the choir knew, was perhaps pertinent too, as they tried to cram too much into the night.  

Leyland, under the direction of Michael Fowles, performed four pieces in each half.  Commencing with Vaughan Williams' ‘For All the Saints', they produced a lovely controlled sound in the opening number, before a fine performance of the traditional ‘I Wonder as I Wander'.

Lucy Pankhurst then gave an indication that she is a tenor horn player to look out for.  Not just a fine playe, with a delightful tone but a talented arranger also as she demonstrated in ‘Santa Baby'.

To conclude their first half ‘individual' spot, the band performed a selection of music from ‘Jesus Christ Superstar'.   In the second half, they included the seasonal favourites, ‘Mary Had a Baby' and ‘Mary's Boy Child' whilst Jeff Lewis and James Simpson, the bands baritone players had a lot of fun in James Gourlay's arrangement of ‘The Syncopated Clock'.

The band's final item was a cracking arrangement by cornet player, Dave Timmins of ‘Dance of the Buffoons' – incidental music to the Russian play, ‘The Snow Maiden'.  It's typical Tchaikovsky stuff, fast, furious, but lyrical music that the band pulled off extremely well.

Apart from the band, the other guest for the night was soprano singer, Karen Elliott, of whom the choir has performed before.  With the choir doing a full programme of their own and the band's contributions, (and as lovely as Karen's singing was) it didn't really need another contributor.

Warrington is certainly one of the best MVC's in England if not the whole of the United Kingdom. Under the jovial direction of Russell Paterson, they put on a programme which was in keeping with the season, whilst they demonstrated male choral singing at its best with a rendition of Parry's ‘I was Glad When They Said Unto Me' followed by ‘Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening' - a requested item for the concert, but arguably their finest bit of singing of the whole night.

As well as the traditional carols, the band and choir had a lot of fun, in a Tom Jones medley and the final number of the night, the popular ‘Schneewalzer' complete with silly head gear and snowballs being thrown all over the place.

A great night's entertainment, if a little too long with all the musicians getting into the spirit of Christmas. 

Malcolm Wood

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