Forty for Gloria in Brum
5 March 2016
This evening over forty choir members visited Birmingham’s
Symphony Hall to hear the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
perform works by Berlioz, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, and Poulenc – for
whose Gloria the orchestra were joined by members of the CBSO Chorus
and the soprano soloist Sophie Bevan.
Poulenc with Berlioz, Tchaikovsky and
Stravinsky
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The CBSO Chorus - ready for Poulenc
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The Poulenc is a great favourite of many choir members and we are
hopeful that we will get the chance to perform it again soon (we
last performed in in 2002); conductor Nicholas Collon kept the pace
flowing throughout and ensured that the gaps between each movement
were short and sweet. The
acoustics in the Hall are so superb that we were able to hear every
word of the Poulenc, and the large proportion of men in the choir
ensured that there was a superb balance across all four parts.
One Half of the Assembled Choir
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And the Other Half of the Assembled Choir
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For many of our group it was the Tchaikovsky, however, which was
a great revelation. Over nearly twenty minutes the brooding
atmosphere was full apparent, and as each section moved on it became
clear that it was not a work in traditional
exposition-development-recapitulation form, but instead a very
linear fantasy.
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