Tring Choral Society's December Concert - an Eclectic and Uplifting Programme

Tring Choral Society, conducted by Colin Stevens, put on a delightful concert on 15th December in the Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul, Tring.

With a varied programme than can be summed up as both eclectic and uplifting, the concert opened, appropriately enough, with Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on Christmas Carols. This was followed by an orchestral piece, Sibelius' Finlandia, played by the Chiltern Orchestral Society who accompanied the choir throughout. A second Vaughan Williams work, Five Mystical Songs, came next - contemplative, allegorical, devotional and tender. Again this was an inspired choice for the run up to Christmas.

Finally, after the interval, the choir sang the highly personal The Music Makers by Edward Elgar, almost on the centenary of its first performance in Birmingham. His poem, which is set to his music, is, I believe, essentially modest, despite its underlying theme of the power of musicians to usher in social change - albeit of a romantic sort. Although I thought I detected at one point a hint of La Marseillaise, that stirring but violent anthem to revolutionary change, Elgar's gentle, amost wistful, Englishness comes through throughout. Despite his other compositions that were pressed into patriotic service, there is nothing in his poetry that jars and much in the music that soothes and comforts in the face of the changing of things and the ephemeral nature of man and human societies.

One wonders how it was received back in 1912 when the mood was martial, triumphalist and proud - and heedless of the beckoning disaster.

The choir, the soloists and the orchestra handled the Five Mystical Pieces and Music Makers in splendid balance, bringing out the thoughtful calmness of both composers, their quiet optimism and their dignity, with the whole concert one that was entirely suitable to Advent.

Our thanks to Colin and the choir, to Janet Hicks and the Chiltern Orchestral Society and to the two soloists, Andrea Gray, soprano, and Tom Isherwood, baritone.