Cantores Olicanae

In the Mood!

St John's Church, Ben Rhydding

Saturday 10th June 2017

The Ilkley choir's traditional summer concert of music in a lighter vein was inspired by the rich musical heritage from across the pond, notably the Great American Songbook.

On paper at least, George Shearing's settings of seven Shakespeare sonnets looked uncomfortable in this context. In practice however, the sonnets released from Cantores some of their cleanest and most expressive singing of the evening.

My own favourites being the crystal clear vocal line of It Was a Lover and his Lass, and the long phrases and refulgent textures of Who is Sylvia?

The choir's colouring of Guy Turner's sumptuous choral setting of Harold Arlen's Over the Rainbow was a revelation to those of us brought up on Judy Garland's sweetly sentimental rendition in the Wizard of Oz.

Cantores' other contributions included Cole Porter's Begin the Beguine, and Night and Day; 'Fats' Waller's Ain't Misbehavin' ended the programme. All these songs demonstrated Cantores' mastery of fast changing rhythms under the animated musical direction of conductor Rory Johnston.

Jazz vocalist Lucie Phillips delivered sultry renditions of Sonny Burke's Black Coffee, Billie Holiday's rather poignant Fine and Mellow, and Duke Ellington's soulful Come Sunday.

The indispensable Robert Sudall Jazz Trio (now billed as Motion Complex) appropriately launched the programme with In the Mood! - a standard originally recorded by Edgar Hayes and his Orchestra in 1938 but indelibly associated with Glenn Miller. Motion Complex' final contributions were Sudall's arrangement of When You Wish Upon a Star, and his own composition Circles in the Sand - an evocation of seaside theatre organs.

Such a varied concert - comprising at my third re-count of the programme pages - 23 musical numbers, perhaps belies the intensive rehearsals devoted to its' presentation. Congratulations to everyone involved.

Geoffrey Mogridge