Christmas music to please

The Municipal Orchestra, under Hugh Fenn, last night produced some of it most vital and polished playing in months.


In Coleridge Taylor’s Christmas Overture, the Polonaise from “Christmas Night” (Rimsky-Korsakaov) and Suppe’s “Pique Dame”, the quality of instrumental and string playing was outstanding.

Soprano Marjorie Hird never fails to charm, and she shone in the coloratura passages of Sullivan’s “Poor Wandering One”. But some untidy rhythm and a sharp ending to the “Laughing Song” from Die Fledermaus made me wonder whether she has been singing enough lately.

The John Fenton Singers, with Mr. Fenton conducting and Malcolm Mackay as a steady baritone soloist, joined the Orchestra for Vaughn Williams Fantasia on Christmas Carols. The carol tunes were fused together in this work with a purpose and subtlety that made Coleridge Taylor’s Overture look bare at the seams.

It is a pity in a way that the programme planners did not opt for a programme either wholly of “lollipops” or entirely serious. As it was, it was inevitable that the moving dignity of the Vaughan Williams made the glitter of the rest of the programme seem slightly meretricious.

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