If you were at Nottingham’s Royal Concert Hall on Monday 1 December for Tenebrae’s concert, you might have bumped into many present and past members of Nottingham Chamber Singers. The evening’s performance inspired soprano Annie to pen this week’s Postcard from the Choir.
It can be very intimidating joining a new choir where everyone seems to have known each other for years and is able to sing everything easily as they have done it before. That is how it was for me when I joined NCS (EOES) nine years ago.
I quickly discovered that these intimidating people were friendly and welcoming and I am now fortunate enough to join some of them at performances of the wide range of classical music Nottingham has to offer.
This week a group of us were excited to go and hear the wonderful Tenebrae who were visiting the Concert Hall with their Christmas programme, ‘In Winter’s House’.
(Imagine there’s a selfie here of some smiling NCS sopranos waiting for the concert to begin. We did take a photo but only Rachel H’s teeth were in focus and we didn’t think she’d thank us for posting it!)
What a breathtaking performance from Tenebrae! Precision accurate without losing any emotion or beauty.
All the singers have impressive solo voices, and when they come together as a choir the sound is glorious. I could continue with many superlatives! The highlight for me was Britten’s Ceremony of Carols for upper voices and harp accompaniment. They made it sound effortless. It isn’t – we’ve sung it!
The most beautiful sound to me is the sound of the human voice and I am grateful that these wonderful singers choose to share their gift with us and, in doing so, make the world a better place!
Annie shares her favourite item from the programme – Tenebrae singing ‘As Dew in Aprille’ from Ceremony of Carols.
Tenebrae are directed by Nigel Short, a former King’s Singer.
NCS = Nottingham Chamber Singers, formerly EOES = East of England Singers.
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