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Plorens, ploravit

Event Details

Time: March 23, 2011 from 7:30pm to 9pm
Location: St John's Wood, Conventual Church of St John of Jerusalem
Street: 60 Grove End Road
City/Town: London NW8 9NH
Event Type: fundraiser, a, capella
Organized By: Simon Lillystone
Latest Activity: Mar 24, 2011

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Event Description

You are invited to a concert of truly scrumptious music in St john's Wood next Wednesday. The pieces are hand picked for their beauty, and the singers for their sensitivity. The music is polyphony, with up to 7 different voice parts interweaving to create (we hope) a glorious sound in the lovely acoustic of the Church. Details are on the attached leaflet.

The concert is in aid of St John and St Elizabeth's hospice, which does wonderful work in supporting the dying and their loved ones. Seehttp://www.stjohnshospice.org.uk/.

Simon Lillystone is conducting and Alison will be in the choir

We do hope to see you there

Admission is free, exit is by donation

Comment Wall

Comment by Richard Williams on March 20, 2011 at 19:29: A great idea Adrian,

I love choral music and visiting churches.

But what has it to do with N8, pray.

Richard

Comment by Adrian Essex on March 20, 2011 at 20:48: The Lillystones are denizens of Crouch End

Comment by CrouchEnd Cupcake on March 20, 2011 at 20:53: How lovely but unfortunately I won't be able to make it. @Richard. Surely a function of this site is to alert N8 folks to what's going on in the environs surrounding our little enclave so we can broaden our horizons from time to time?

Comment by Richard Williams on March 20, 2011 at 20:57: Thanks Adrian. I see the connection.

Comment by Adrian Essex on March 24, 2011 at 10:57: I went to this concert last night and enjoyed it enormously. I can find nothing to fault with it.

The venue is surprising. St John's Hospital is a state of the art hospital with the most modern equipment - they boast of their cutting edge MRI scanner, but right in the middle of the building is the archetypal Roman Catholic chapel, with neo classical heavily gilt corinthian capitals on numerous columns, a marble sarcophagus and holy icons. An ideal setting for sacred music.

The choir was made up of fourteen enthusiastic volunteers and a conductor. The music was from the English renaissance of the mid 16th century, deriving from medieval plainsong but elaborating on it with the use of multiple parts in different registers to achieve rich polyphony. At least I think that's it. My only previous encounter with this type of music was an installation at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, an recorded arrangement of a piece by Tallis for 40 voices, in which each voice was given its own speaker set out in a huge circle. The live performance in an intimate chapel was just as stunning.

Each piece was introduced by the conductor in terms which the depths of my ignorance just about enabled me to understand. Discussing the pieces and other music with members of the choir in the pub afterwards only served to emphasise just how ignorant I am. The experience might very well encourage me to learn more.

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