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Christmas Carol Party, December 2001 It's Champagne all round
by Alan Cooper
The fresh, bright voices of the boys and girls of Robert Gordon's
College Junior Choir were bubbles in the musical champagne served up by Aberdeen Orpheus Choir at their Christmas Carol party in the Cowdray Hall on Saturday night.
They joined the Orpheus Choir in their final set of carols and made the music sparkle.
Leslie Innes conducted the Juniors in their solo contribution. Two carols by Ben Parry, conductor of Aberdeen Youth Choir,
stole the show.
Kyle McCallum introduced and conducted the concert and teamed up with Elizabeth Wood for two sets of piano duets.
The rousing voices of the Orpheus Choir excelled in A Babe is Born and The
Lamb, while the jaunty rhythms of Sleighbells captured everyone's imagination.
With acknowledgements to the Aberdeen Press & Journal
10th December May 2001
Spring Recital, May 2001 Sir Hugh would have approved
by David Haggart
Aberdeen Orpheus Choir was founded 45 years ago to continue the tradition of choral singing developed by its Glasgow namesake conducted by Sir Hugh Roberton. Sir Hugh was known as a stern, sometimes sarcastic
critic, but I'm sure he would have been very happy with the Aberdeen Orpheus Choir concert at Queen's Cross Church.
Under Kyle McCallum's direction, the Aberdeen Orpheus produced a smooth, rich sound unspoiled by
obtrusive voices.Sopranos and altos blended beautifully, and the male voices, greatly outnumbered, reached the heights and the depths without any apparent strain.
With the vocal technique secure, Mr McCallum
could paint beautiful sound pictures in the two folksong cycles that opened and closed the programme.
John Rutter's Sprig of Thyme is made up of clever, quirky settings of 11 traditional songs. His
arrangements are not easy to sing but, with the Orpheus in good form, the performance seemed effortless.
Even more successful were the Burns songs arranged by Brian Bonsor. This was delightful
especially Ae Fond Kiss to a tune I hadn't heard before.Pianist Elizabeth Wood had a busy evening. Apart from choir accompaniment, she had three solos and joined Mr McCallum in a rousing exposition of Schubert's
Fantasia in F Minor.
With acknowledgements to the Aberdeen Press & Journal
29th May 2001
Millennium Recital, May 2000 Aberdeen Orpheus Choir, conducted by Kyle McCallum, was teamed with Aberdeen's Sinfonietta for its Millennium Recital in St Andrew's Cathedral last night - and it was one of its
best performances.
It opened with Vivaldi's Magnificat, a work in nine short - sometimes astonishingly short - sections. Each, however, is a gem and made to shine by glittering performances from the choir,
orchestra and soloists.
The programme spanned at least the final 300 years of the last millennium, moving on from Vivaldi to Mozart and his Symphony No 29 in A, K201 - elegant, perfectly balanced, nicely paced
and with particularly fine playing from oboes and horns.
The final work, John Rutter's Requiem, took us right up to 1985. This is unashamedly populist music, yet it requires great skill to perform well,
especially the sotto voice singing which the Orpheus Choir managed exceptionally - for instance, the beautifully gentle tenor
singing at the start of the Agnus Dei.
Without a doubt, the crowning moment was the
Pie Jesu, which had soprano Alison McDonald reaching both the depths and the heights of her range, with the chorus gently murmuring the responses and the orchestra colouring in the background. Altogether a magical
sound. With acknowledgments to the Aberdeen Press & Journal. |
