Sunday 19 June 2022

Hay Madrigals Concert

 "Celebrate the summer with glorious music" said the flyer - and it certainly was glorious.

The Hay Madrigals group consisted of four men and five women, accompanied by two violins, a viola da gamba (a sort of early cello) and a chamber organ - or a spinet in other pieces.  These were the instruments that Mozart had been writing for, as Lucy explained - she's the organiser of the group.

As the audience were settling down, there was music from the church organ, played by Barrie Magill.

They started with Mozart's Missa Brevis, or Short Mass, which was even shorter because they left out the Credo.  These are the pieces of music interspersed through a Mass, starting with the Kyrie Eleison (Lord Have Mercy) and finishing with the Agnus Dei (Lamb of God).

They followed that up with a duet of Psalm 3, in which David is calling upon the Lord to save him, by Marcello.

This was followed by a Handel piece which was supposed to have solos from a bassoon and oboe - which they had not got, so they said they were sure Handel wouldn't mind if the bassoon and oboe parts were played by one of the violins and the viola da gamba!

They finished off the performance with a piece praising the Queen of Heaven by Aumann, who nobody had heard of - they thought the video of the performance would be the first on YouTube!  Because John Price was filming the entire concert.

After resounding applause (and an encore - the Queen of Heaven again), there was delicious tea and cake at the back of the church for the very reasonable sum of £3 - I had the chocolate orange cake.

The concert was free, but there was a retiring collection was in aid of the church building, which has such wonderful acoustics for performances like this.  I really thought there was a full choir singing, the sound was so rich and textured.

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