Our final concert of the Christmas Season was on Saturday 7th December 2024 at Christchurch, Northampton with the Northampton Concert Band, conducted by Graham Tear.

The band started off the concert with “A Festival Fanfare” with lots of easily identifiable Christmas tunes to spot.

We had been invited to join the band for some Christmas carols and some of our own pieces, so we started at the end of the band’s piece called “A Winter’s Night”. This was a beautiful evocative wintery piece, which ended with a soft and peaceful verse of “Silent Night” which the choir sang.

Then we performed “Child in a Manger” by John Rutter. We were accompanied by the wonderful concert band. At first glance you may think that you don’t know this piece, but once the melody starts you realise very quickly that it is “Morning has Broken”!

We performed “Ubi Caritas” by Ola Gjeilo, which gives a nod to Gregorian Chant and church music of long ago as it is sung in Latin, but with a modern feel with piano improvisations performed brilliantly by our very own accompanist, Richard Holloway. This was very atmospheric in the beautiful acoustics of the church.

The band then played an excellent piece called “Minor Alterations” where lots of Christmas melodies were transformed by changing them into a minor key, rather than their usual major version. This gave some of the tunes a dark and sinister feel and was very entertaining.

Then back to another John Rutter piece “Christmas Night” accompanied by the gentle sound of the concert band clarinet section. This was guaranteed to ensure that any babies in the audience were sleeping soundly! The choir sang in melting 4-part harmonies and all was calm and bright.

The first half ended with the Concert Band’s performance of an arrangement of the film music for “ET the extra-terrestrial.” This had us all sitting on the edge of our seats absorbed in the music. A few tissues were needed for the ending!

After the interval the concert band started off with an arrangement of Jingle Bells, using the percussion section to great effect, followed by “Hark the Herald” with audience participation.

Next, the choir sang “The Shepherd’s Pipe Carol” with lovely bouncy rhythms and syncopated sections. Such a feel-good carol!

The Concert Band played 2 more pieces: “ Let the Bells Ring” and “New York” which showed the skill and dexterity of all the amazing players.

Then the gloves came off and we all played and sang “The Twelve Days of Christmas”. When we got to the section of “5 Gold Rings” the audience, band and choir nearly blew the church roof off!!

Finally, the band finished the concert with “A Christmas Overture” and “The Christmas Song”, all feel good pieces which left everyone with a big smile on their faces. It was very enjoyable and entertaining concert and a great start to the Christmas Season.

Written by Anne-Marie Blackadder, Alto