"A wonderfully enjoyable and unique choral festival giving local choirs a chance to access works they probably wouldn't normally attempt and a feeling of maintaining an historic tradition." Janet Topping, Regional Representative, The Federation of Festivals
The 2011 Festival ran from Thursday 7th April to Saturday 9th April 2011.
The opening concert gave the men's voices and the women's voices a chance to shine independently: the women in Vaughan Williams's arrangement of his set of songs In Windsor Forest and the men as accompaniment to the soloist (the wonderful Diana Moore) in Brahms' Alto Rhapsody. The icing on the cake was Beethoven's Mass in C: the young Beethoven writing music which is suitably youthful and energetic in parts and appropriately gentle and lyrical where the text demands.
The programme on Friday combined Mozart's Dominican Vespers with a recent setting of the Requiem by Sir Philip Ledger. Mozart's music is always a joy to sing and Ledger's setting of the Requiem (with added text) is tuneful and heart-felt.
For the grand finale on Saturday, Division 3 choirs flexed their combined muscles in music by Verdi and Gerald Finzi. This was the largest orchestral force of the Festival reflecting the scale of both works. Verdi's Te Deum and Stabat Mater are two of his set of Four Sacred Pieces and they require a great show of vocal strength and stamina, including some thrilling passages for eight-part choir. Finzi's celebration For St Cecilia, the Patron Saint of Music and Musicians, raised the roof at the climax of the Festival.
Photo album - Thursday (Div 1 Choirs)
Photo album - Friday (Div 2 Choirs)
Photo album - Saturday (Div 3 Choirs)