Music to quietly inspire and to refresh the soul.

St Giles' West Bridgford, Nottingham

Ruddington & District Choral Society’s tuneful and elegiac concert (Saturday Nov. 26^th) held in St Giles’ Church, West Bridgford was a sublime, quietly autumnal, and above all spiritual musical celebration. The thoughtful, meticulous and enthusiastic leadership of director Paul Hayward combining with the exquisite organ skills of Michael Overbury ensured that the choir again excelled under their stewardship.

The concert title, “Reflections”, was an apt description for an evening of music ranging from choral favourites, to requiems, solo piano and organ works and to operatic arias where each and every work provided an opportunity for both audience and performers to ponder and reflect upon life’s great mysteries and our own hopes, fears, dreams, aspirations and inspirations.. The opening work, an organ solo by Michael Overbury of Walford Davies’ Solemn Melody, a work so much associated with annual Remembrance Day occasions,  set the scene for what was to follow: an evening of music about our very being, about who we are and what we are; in short, music about our very souls.

Paul Hayward & soloist

Jane Harwood

Fauré’s much loved Cantique de Jean Racine and In Paradisum, the heavenly final movement  from  Fauré’s popular, serene and gently inspiring Requiem  provided a fitting, delicate and lyrical prelude to the evening’s main work, Rutter’s often bleak, haunting, poignant and chorally taxing Requiem. John Rutter’s great funeral work , like Fauré’s, speaks a different musical language from the mighty Requiem’s of Mozart or Verdi, and the choir, at the top of their game under Paul Hayward’s baton,  captured beautifully the sorrow, pain, the hope and the inherent humanity of Rutter’s masterpiece. The bleakness of the opening movement and its many other dark moments gave way to unmistakably optimistic and quietly joyous sections ensuring that its enduring message, as with Fauré’s Requiem,  was one of hope and comfort. It is not surprising that after the events of 9/11, Rutter’s Requiem   was the choice of music at the many memorial services across the USA. The subtle intricacies, nuance, lyricism and the quiet spirituality of each of this and the other works were quietly and sympathetically exposed by the choir as they gave voice to both the pathos and joy of the human condition both in life and in death.

Michael Overbury

Soprano Jane Harwood  was superb throughout - both complementing and leading the choir in the Requiem and in Mendelssohn’s  Hear My Prayer.  Her own solos: Handel’s V’Adoro Pupille  and Mozart’s achingly beautiful Dove Sono  were beautifully sung and worthy interludes between the main works as was Paul Hayward’s  piano performance of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. Hayward’s  interpretation of this well known work painted a mysterious and yet captivating musical picture of shimmering moonlight. Accompanist Michael Overbury’s rendering of his own organ composition – Benediction - expressed exactly one of the most profound parts of the Eucharist when the Priest blesses the faithful and slowly raises the Eucharist before placing it back onto the altar. The crescendo  and diminuendo in Overbury’s composition  reflecting the intense devotion and expectation of the act magically captured both the spirituality and quiet beauty of the whole concert.

Taking a bow!

On a chilly and dark November evening this was both music and a performance to refresh and to still the soul. The Ruddington & District Choral Society are, to use modern day parlance “on a roll”. Paul Hayward’s skilled and sympathetic direction and leadership combined with Michael  Overbury’s highly talented musical skills are creating a choir that not only sounds good but which is capable of successfully tackling an increasingly wide repertoire. Choral singing is not only about hitting the right notes. It is as much about empathy with the piece and with what the composer intended; good conductors know this and good choirs are able to capture it. Both Paul Hayward and Michael Overbury, and the whole choir, should be pleased with themselves, together they captured perfectly the music, the autumnal atmosphere of the occasion and, most importantly, the essential ethereal nature and spirituality of these much loved works. The St Giles’ audience intuitively understood this and their appreciation showed it in their delighted applause.