Nottingham City Centre Church Group

Recent Visits

• York Minster (31st May - 1st June 2010)
• Southwell Minster (3 January 2010)
• Llandaff Cathedral (17-18 August 2009)
• Bath Abbey (15-16 August 2009)
• Peterborough Cathedral (4 May 2009)
• Lichfield Cathedral (19 April 2009)
• Gloucester Cathedral (3 January 2009)
• Westminster Abbey (24-26 August 2008)

The choir of St Peter’s continues to lead choral services at St Peter’s Church every Sunday of the year, and also at All Saints’ Church once a month, usually at the Eucharist on the second Sunday of the month. The choir currently comprises thirty-one singers – now entirely adults, though relationships with local schools continue to be cultivated through a series of ‘Come and Sing Evensong’ projects. It is to their great credit and the hard work they freely offer week-by-week, both during the routine Friday evening rehearsal and in the regular services of Matins (first Sunday), Eucharist (all but first Sunday), Evensong (second Sunday) and Compline (fourth Sunday), that a high quality musical tradition continues to flourish at St Peter’s & All Saints’. This is never more rewarding than when particular services elicit significant comment from the congregations we serve. The presentation of John Sanders’ setting of The Reproaches during Holy Week, and the Charpentier Mass and Buxtehude motet (with string accompaniment) performed on Advent Sunday, stick in my mind as particularly gratifying examples.

We were sorry to say goodbye to Alison Smith, now mid-way through her first year at the University of Aberystwyth (but happily a frequent returner during the vacations), and to Dr Natalie Wood, who moved to take up new employment in Somerset. It was very good during the course of the year to welcome to the choir Elizabeth Cresswell, Chris Harper and Michael Garber – all students at the city’s universities.

Collaborations with our friends and colleagues at St Mary’s continue to be an important part of the choir’s schedule. Christopher Harrison’s installation as Priest-in-Charge on 22nd February was a particularly thrilling example, as was the now traditional ‘massed choirs’ service at All Saints’ on the patronal festival of that church (1st November). The “Mystery of Christmas” concert on 5th December was a magical occasion, and I must pay particular tribute to the six sopranos of the St Peter’s Choir, along with harpist Brian Wilson, for giving a deeply moving performance of Benjamin Britten’s now classic ‘Ceremony of Carols’.

St Peter’s Choir made the first of what would become a long tradition of cathedral visits during Easter Week 1969, to Lichfield Cathedral. Almost forty years to the day, on Low Sunday 2009, a long overdue return visit was paid (pictured above, with Kendrick Partington, Organist 1957-94, far right). The canticles were sung to the same setting – Wood in D – as that of the 1969 visit. Further trips followed to Peterborough Cathedral on 4th May, to a very busy Bath Abbey on 15th & 16th August, and to the beautifully peaceful Llandaff Cathedral on 17th & 18th August. The choir’s singing was of an exceptional quality during these visits, and selected recordings can be found on the choir’s page of the parish website, nottinghamchurches.org.

Concerts have been an increasingly frequent entry in the choir’s diary. The benefit concert (focused around a performance of Fauré’s Requiem in its original 1888 version) in aid of the organ appeal on 30th May earned a wonderful review in the Evening Post, which paid tribute to the “outstanding standard of music-making at this city centre church”. Many thanks to Imogen Rex for her extraordinary efficiency in fixing instrumentalists, not only for this performance, but for concerts and services throughout the year – a great gift which considerably enriches our music-making. The year also saw the development of a particularly fulfilling relationship with the Essentially Brass quintet (already favourites at the Saturday morning ‘coffee break’ concerts). A concert of music for choir and brass (including Purcell’s poignant ‘Funeral Music for Queen Mary’ and Gabrieli’s magnificent Ascensiontide motet ‘Omnes Gentes’) was performed at St Peter’s on 18th July and then repeated, in a slightly expanded format, at St Peter’s, Parwich (one of the churches in Christopher Harrison’s former parish) on 19th September, where we were given the warmest of welcomes. Much of the concert is recorded on YouTube – just search the site for ‘nottingham choir in parwich’!

With such a busy and productive year it is easy to forget that the future of the musical tradition that we are fortunate enough to enjoy at St Peter’s has been under considerable threat from the continued lack of an appropriate organ to sustain it, and this is never more obvious than on feast days and at special services such as weddings and funerals. Happily, though, the organ appeal has – and continues to be – most successful; a number of very generous personal donations, awards from various trust funds, and a hugely varied array of fund raising activities mean that a new organ at St Peter’s (an artist’s impression of the new chancel case is pictured, right) is an increasingly real prospect. The heartfelt thanks of all who benefit from the musical tradition at St Peter’s go to all the benefactors and fund raisers. There is still some way to go, however, and further contributions to the appeal continue to be very gratefully received, either via the online portal at justgiving.com/stpetersorgan or through the forms available from the parish office or at the back of St Peter’s.

The Saturday ‘coffee break’ concerts (which, having been started by Kendrick & Mary Partington in 1988, will reach their fiftieth series in October 2010) continue undiminished in popularity, and it is a pleasure to be able to provide our audiences with a very wide range of performances through the year. As always, the concerts remain a popular showcase for local talent, but it has also been a great privilege to welcome a number of superb professional musicians to the series this year, who give of their time and talent for nothing more than the pleasure of performing to a large and appreciative audience. Particularly noteworthy in 2009 were the memorable performances by James Rippingale (classical guitar, 21st February), Yi Yao & Ching Ching Lim (accordion & piano duo, 4th July), and the Hathor Trio (flute, clarinet and piano, 31st October).

Thanks, as always, go to the Clarke, Smith and Charter families for their work in support of these concerts, but also to all my colleagues that work so hard to support the music at St Peter’s & All Saints’ – Christopher Harrison and the clergy, the office staff, the congregations, the concert audiences, and as ever, for their tireless efforts and boundless commitment and enthusiasm, the choir and the organist team. Chief among them is Dr Michael Leuty, not only for his marvellous organ playing, but also for the invaluable record he keeps of the choir’s activities through photographs and recordings, and Keith Charter, from whose wise counsel and organisational wizardry, both the choir and the organ appeal have benefited particularly greatly this year.

MOZART AND FAURE
St Peter’s Church
Peter Palmer

A new organ is needed for St Peter’s, and Saturday’s fund-raising concert demonstrated the outstanding standard of music-making at the ancient city church.

The evening ended with a stunning local first – something very close to Fauré’s Requiem as he originally conceived it, using just a handful of players.

Under Peter Siepmann’s direction, the expressive accents and climaxes of the choral writing were gauged to perfection. Adele Charter sang a celestial Pie Jesu. The playing of SaraBande was nothing short of revelatory.

Equally engaging was an authentic pared-down version of the first piano concerto that Mozart composed after moving from Salzburg to Vienna: No. 12 in A major.

The Andante amounts to a mini-requiem for Mozart’s childhood mentor, Johann Christian Bach. It formed the core of Martin Jacoby’s beautifully phrased performance, the strings adding to the gaiety of the outer movements.

For their part, the Choir of St Peter’s shone in a polyphonic motet by Palestrina and a neo-romantic piece by William Harris. Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus completed a splendid programme.

Nottingham Evening Post, 1st June 2009