Full House for Requiem Concert
Ninety seven members of the Farnham & Bourne Choral Society sang in its Remembrance concert on Saturday 9th November at St. Thomas-in-the Bourne. The church had a capacity audience of 250, ranging in age from the single to the nearly triple figures. Judging by audience comments, the varied first half programme was a particular hit. It opened with Handel’s rousing chorus Zadok the Priest, followed by Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik, sensitively conducted by Robin Wells, and played by the 22-piece orchestra led by Sally Dewey. Mendelssohn’s short Prayer for Peace preceded another choral work by Handel. This was an arrangement of Eternal Source of Light Divine, from the Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne, for solo soprano (beautifully sung by the pure voice of Jenny Sanders) and solo trumpet (played from the organ loft by Will Spencer). Due to its popularity, this item had been included for a second consecutive year.
For the Fallen, a poem set to music by Mark Blatchly for the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance in 1980, was then sung by the choir, perhaps a little muddily (how appropriate!) and immediately followed by the trumpeter’s perfect sounding of The Last Post from within the vestry. At this point there was many a moist eye.
Post interval, Mozart’s Requiem completed the concert. The soloists, Ruth Parr (soprano), Alex Lawrence (contralto), Hugh Hetherington (tenor) and Simon Cakebread (bass) were all proficient in their parts. While it must be said the choir had a wobbly moment or two in the more challenging passages, none was too obvious, and there was great applause at the end of the work.