Vital ingredients...
If you’ve been thinking that it is time that you made your Christmas cake, then you will have been stocking up - fuel supplies and supermarket shelves permitting. There’s something special about bringing together the ingredients to create something far better than the component parts, and then adding the finishing touches – the icing on the cake!
Plymouth Philharmonic Choir is cooking up a treat and the great news is that you won’t have to wait until Christmas to sample it! After a two-year pause, the choir is delighted to be performing their next concert on Sunday 28 November at 7.30 p.m. So, what about the vital ingredients? The venue is Plymouth Guildhall with its spacious, iconic 1950’s grandeur. The 35 members of the orchestra will be led by the highly respected and very accomplished violinist Mary Eade. The voices of four superb soloists will bring a unique depth and richness to the performance. We will be welcoming soprano Philippa Hyde whose concert, oratorio and operatic career has taken her all over the world, performing in some extraordinary venues including the Chapel of Versailles and the throne room in the Rosenborg Palace, Copenhagen. She will be singing Mozart’s exquisite Exsultate Jubilate. Performing Bach’s Christmas Oratorio in the Sydney Opera House is one of many concert highlights for mezzo-soprano Kate Symonds-Joy. Former pastry chef, Matthew Pochin performs across the UK and Europe as a tenor soloist and regularly sings with the choir of HM Chapel Royal, Hampton Court. Baritone Richard Bannan began singing as a chorister in St Paul’s Cathedral and, when not teaching and pursuing his career as a soloist, is lay-clerk of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle.
Whereas it is customary to soak the dried fruit for the cake in brandy, the same can’t be said about the choir! Under the baton of musical director Christopher Fletcher, voices refreshed from the break, are back in great form with renewed energy and drive - which is just as well with the number of notes to be sung in the works being performed: Haydn’s Nelson Mass and Mozart’s Coronation Mass. If you think that these masses are not your cup of tea, then consider whether you would judge a cake without sampling it. The music will take you on a rollercoaster ride of emotions with joyous passages where the notes dance along, to intense, dramatic sections and others where the interweaving of the soloists’ voices is simply sublime. Add to this the ‘in the moment’ experience and excitement of a live performance and what’s not to love?
What will be the choir’s icing on the cake? - having you join us as a member of the audience. Further information about the concert, together with ticket prices and availability, is available on the choir’s website https://plymouthphilchoir.org.