A SOLD-OUT CONCERT AT ST ANDREW’S, WILMCOTE
If Elf and Safetee had allowed, it would have been
standing-room only in Wilmcote’s St Andrew’s Church on Sunday evening for the
latest in the popular series of Gwyn Williams Bursary concerts.
This jewel of a building was packed to capacity with an
audience of 80+ to enjoy a mixed programme of vocal and instrumental items
delivered by a team of highly -talented international professionals all giving
their services free of charge in aid of this charity, founded to aid young
string players, in memory of Gwyn, a long-term Wilmcote resident, and Sir Simon
Rattle’s principal viola in the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
Much-loved local archdeacon, the Ven. Dr Brian Russell, gave
informative and perceptive introductions to performances by Chinese violist
Jinhe Chang, first prizewinner of the Gwyn Williams Viola Prize at the Royal
Birmingham Conservatoire ,accompanied by Jiayi Chen (Vaughan Williams and
Elgar), American cellist Nicholas Britton Trygstad, Head of Strings at the RBC
(Haydn Wood, Saint-Saens and Delius), and local soprano Robyn Pullen and Polish
mezzo Maria Jagusz.
These two vocalists delivered captivating solo items from
The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, Cats, the Wizard of Oz, Follies and Puccini’s
Gianni Schicchi, and they combined for a moving “We’ll Gather Lilacs”, a
passionate and dramatic “A Boy Like That” from Bernstein’s West Side Story, and
a show-stopping Rossini Cats’ Duet, claws, eyes and high notes flashing in this
feline confrontation.
The hard-working accompanist for the cello and vocal items
was Mark Bebbington, whose career has taken him from New York’s Carnegie Hall
to the Philippines, and he contributed solo items by Poulenc, Debussy and
Chopin before concluding the evening with an absolutely barn-storming account
of Liszt’s hair-raisingly virtuosic paraphrase of music from Verd’s Rigoletto.
There was a spontaneous standing ovation even before Mark’s final chord -- and the Bursary’s Yamaha keyboard gave an
heroic impersonation of a Steinway Model “D” piano.
These Bursary concerts are fast becoming legendary, not only
for their musical content, but also for the lavish interval refreshments
provided by the ladies of St Andrew’s. Better get on the waiting-list now for
the next concert, on May Day next year.
Christopher Morley