Alleluia for the Selly Park Singers!
On Saturday 30th November 2024, I travelled over one hundred miles to attend the Selly Park Singers Winter Concert. Upon arrival, I was sceptical upon discovering that the theme was simply ‘Alleluia’. After all, how could a collection of choral pieces, each featuring the same word, make for an interesting concert? As if sensing my scepticism, the Selly Park Singers opened their mouths and over the course of an hour, showed me.
We began with William Boyce’s Alleluia Round, a rousing start that established the bright, celebratory atmosphere. Yet as we moved onto Morley’s Hark, Alleluia and Purcell’s Allelujah, I found myself reflecting on the melancholy minor key that echoed through the hall. I would describe it as the tranquil joy one feels on a crisp winter morning, the feeling of pressing your hand against the frosted windowpane. It was a reminder that contentment can take many forms and can be sung in different ways. I was roused again by Hallelujah Chorus (Messiah) just in time for Grace Constable’s remarkable rendition of Mozart’s Exsultate, jubilate.
‘Alleluia’ served as a constant for the performance, a thread that wove together worship songs of the Renaissance era with 20th century classics. ‘Alleluia’ is a simple word that holds within it all the praise and joy of millions of people through the ages. It was an apt word, too, for the Selly Park Singers Winter Concert, for what else is this time of year for, if not for expressing joy and spreading it to those around us?
More Purcell was sung beautifully by both the Selly Park Singers and Grace Constable, the haunting words and delicate harmonies from a time long gone drifting upwards and filling the hall. Highlights of the final section were Randall Thompson’s Alleluia, in which variations in volume were arranged excellently by musical director Paul Carr, and Alleluia Song of Gladness by Richard Proulx. This last song featured bells and percussion as accompaniments to what was a lovely, jolly encore. I was left with the feeling that I had just drunk a glass of sherry; my chest burned with warmth, merriness, and Christmas cheer!
Paul Carr, accompanist Dick Price, Grace Constable, and of course the singers themselves, all deserved the rapturous applause that followed the final note. Every mile I travelled to attend this concert was worth it in the end, for I left with a feeling of jubilance that I hadn’t arrived with.
By Katie Day