Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra: Celebration of Christmas Carols at Lighthouse Poole Review
DISCLOSURE – TICKETS TO SEE THE SHOW WERE GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER AND GUEST FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW
Reviewed by Georgina Bentley
This concert was a fantastic Celebration of Christmas Carols and you could feel everybody’s excitement over the festive period as soon as you walked into the concert hall. The Christmas Carols were to be performed by the amazing Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and the superb singers from the Bournemouth Symphony Chorus and the Bournemouth Youth Chorus, with some audience participation on six of the carols.
Conducting the orchestra and symphony chorus was Gavin Carr who is the chorus director, the carols that featured the Bournemouth Youth Chorus were conducted by their music director, Mark Burstow. Presenting the night was the BSO’s CEO Dougie Scarfe who made the evening flow brilliantly with little anecdotes between carols and a few festive cracker jokes thrown in too!
The stage was set with Christmas trees either side making it look very festive. The musicians were very smart in their white tuxedos and brightly coloured festive dresses. The chorus were very bright in their differently coloured tops. All in all the stage was filled with colours that were very pleasing to the eyes.
The evening got off to a great start with the exciting ‘A Christmas Festival’ by Leroy Anderson, this is an overture for orchestra based on 8 most popular Christmas carols. Next it was the audience’s turn to join in and show the orchestra what fine voice they were in with a rousing rendition of ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’ which started off with a fantastic brass fanfare.
During the first half there were a couple of very poignant moments. The first of which was the choirboy so beautifully singing the first verse of ‘Once In Royal David’s City’, he did so amazingly well to a packed concert hall. After which the chorus and orchestra performed a piece called ‘The Christmas Truce’ written by Teresa Barlow, this is an interpretation of the poem by Carol Ann Duffy which was narrated by Dougie Scarfe, it had the audience captivated.
The first half was finished off with a beautiful arrangement of ‘O Holy Night’ performed by the chorus and BSO.
After the 20 minute interval, during which we enjoyed a new forest ice cream! The chorus came back onto the stage in their festive sparkle, many had added Christmas lights to their clothing and one was dressed as a giant Christmas star. The orchestra too had come back from the interval even more festive with many of them wearing Santa hats.
The second half started off with the joyous carol ‘Joy To The World’. Highlights in the second half for me were an endearing rendition of ‘In The Bleak Midwinter’ and the contrasting performance of ‘Sleigh Ride’ which the BSO played faultlessly and had everybody’s feet tapping. The audience were asked to join in with the great ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ from Messiah and we all joined in with the very last carol ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’. After a standing ovation by many in the audience, the stage broke into one last musical feast of ‘We Wish You A Merry Christmas’.
The whole evening was packed with carols being beautifully sung and played and a great evening was had by all.
Rating: 4/5
The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra presented Celebration of Christmas Carols at the Lighthouse Poole on Monday 23rd December 2024 for more information of future concerts visit www.lighthousepoole.co.uk or call the box office on 01202 280000.
Poole Lighthouse, 21 Kingland Road, Poole, Dorset, BH15 1UG