Final fling for Sinfonia Society's charity concert (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Final fling for Sinfonia Society's charity concert

9:10am Friday 23rd December 2011 in Music news By Adrian Mullen, Arts correspondent

IT HAS often been said that Christmas really begins with the Lakeland Sinfonia’s festive fling.

Sadly, though it will have to start somewhere else next year as the 2011 concert was deemed the last.

Following wonderful performances by the Lakeland Sinfonia, soloist soprano Catrine Kirkman and special guests the Kentside Singers and Friends, the audience was left speechless when chairman of the Westmorland Charity Concerts Society trustees David Potts took to the Westmorland Hall stage to announce, with obvious regret, the trustees’ decision to call time on any more Christmas shows put on by the society.

He told the audience that during the past 30 years the society’s Christmas concert had distributed more than £115,000 to 44 different local charities.

He added: “However, over the past few years the cost of putting on the concerts has increased, while the financial support we have been able to obtain from sponsors has declined.”

David explained that audience numbers had dropped, also affecting revenue.

He also pointed out that the trustees had preferred to stop the concerts this year rather than “suffer an inevitable slow decline.”

Thankfully, the concert itself was nothing less than inspiring and signed off three decades of magical music-making in fine style.

The overture from Gilbert and Sullivan’s Yeoman of the Guard opened proceedings and soprano Catrine Kirkman stepped into the spotlight with a further brace of G&S tunes.

Bringing the Kentside Singers and Friends into the yuletide mix proved an inspired choice. The Barber Shop quartet augmented to eight for the night performed a humorous, entertaining and varied repertoire of unaccompanied pieces, including The Battle of Jericho, By the Watermelon Vine, and a hilarious and animated vignette in The Carol Singers.

The bold balladeers included some of the region’s best known male voices and it did cross my mind that here we had an act with Britain’s Got Talent potential.

Another master stroke was putting a couple of Roland Fudge compositions in the programme. His Swaggerton’s Exuberance had so many key changes I couldn’t keep up - David Chapman’s piano playing here was wonderful, although at times the sound balance between piano and strings suffered somewhat. Roland’s other piece was the short and sweet Thoughtful Melody, which quite simply left me wanting more.

The Skater’s Waltz had the Sinfonia in splendid form under the guidance of Philip Sunderland, who, with his cheery banter and charismatic presence proved himself a more than worthy successor to the Christmas conductor’s crown previously worn by Wyn Davies.

The night got even better when Sinfonia leader David Routledge stepped up as soloist for a beautiful performance of Massenet’s Meditation from Thais before both audience and performers went on a sleigh ride through a selection of carols.

A great way to bring a remarkable era to an end.