A Tapestry of Words and Music
What a superb concert Charles had arranged for us and how we all enjoyed the selection of tunes and readings by Audrey. It was all absolutely wonderful.
St. Cecilia, the virginal patron of music and musicians, is remembered as having sung in her heart throughout her marriage ceremony in the 3rd century AD, and we too hummed and tapped and nodded our heads to familiar tunes brilliantly executed on the piano by a team of three accomplished pianists – Charles plus David Edmonds and Wendy Nicholas – playing as a team of six hands or occasionally as duets. And this is to ignore the seventh hand, namely Joan the page-turner, who managed to flick the pages and keep everyone playing in time and at the right place in the music.
Most of the tunes were familiar to the audience and ranged from Mozart and Boccherini (remember The Lady Killers with Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers and Katie Johnson – “You naughty men”) to Bizet, Grieg, and many others.
Audrey had chosen a number of beautiful, as well as amusing, pieces, starting with Joyce Grenfell’s Stately as a Galleon and she sailed through the musical numbers with pieces from Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy, plus Jerome K. Jerome and others, to give a verbal feast of humour and evocative description as vital interludes to the music. All her pieces were carefully chosen, all most apt and perfectly delivered. We almost wept as she described how she had taken her harp to a party but nobody asked her to play.
It was all great fun and had clearly taken a great deal of time, selecting, putting together, rehearsing and polishing, and we are grateful to Charles and the 3 artistes for their time and dedication. We were reminded at the end that the next “show” is 6th June when we shall celebrate the inauguration of the church organ some 150 years ago. Please note the date in your diaries and come along for a further feast.
And, on that note, we also thank our catering team who provided soup, scones, beverages and biscuits beforehand. It was a wonderful and most agreeable afternoon in every way
