Events in 2016
|
Tuesday 13th December 2016, Holy Trinity Church, Bolton-le-Sands, 7.30pm
Christmas Celebration - 'Magnificat' Our annual Christmas concert featuring festive music including settings of the Magnificat by Gabrieli, Arvo Part and Rutter, as well as music by Poulenc and James Macmillan. |
|
Sunday 25th September 2016
Caldbeck & Workington
Autumn Mini Tour
Kentigern's Church, Caldbeck, 3pm
St John's Church, Workington, 7.30pm
To celebrate the LC's 40th year, the concerts featured a selection of the choir's favourite 2015/2016 repertoire split into four groups: Renaissance, Modern, Romantic and Shakespeare.
The programme included Chilcott, Shearing, Vaughan Williams, Harris, Rutter, Britten, Bruckner, Monteverdi and Mendelssohn; and echoed some of the great moments of the year including the marking of Shakespeare's 400th anniversary.
Caldbeck & Workington
Autumn Mini Tour
Kentigern's Church, Caldbeck, 3pm
St John's Church, Workington, 7.30pm
To celebrate the LC's 40th year, the concerts featured a selection of the choir's favourite 2015/2016 repertoire split into four groups: Renaissance, Modern, Romantic and Shakespeare.
The programme included Chilcott, Shearing, Vaughan Williams, Harris, Rutter, Britten, Bruckner, Monteverdi and Mendelssohn; and echoed some of the great moments of the year including the marking of Shakespeare's 400th anniversary.
Saturday 9th July 2016, St George's, Kendal, 7.30pm
Concert featuring English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble
A concert of European Sacred Music with Levens Choir and ECSE
The concert celebrated Levens Choir's 40th year and included music by Bruckner, Belcke, Mendelssohn, Monteverdi, Guerrero, Handle, Victoria, and Gabrieli.
Review
"We have come to expect a lot from Ian Jones and Levens Choir: imaginative programming;
purposeful tempi; a wide dynamic range; good diction; attention to melodic line whichever part it's in, and exemplary intonation and blending of voices. Saturday evening's concert did not disappoint in any of these categories. Indeed, I'm not sure I've heard them sing better.
The choir is blessed with an excellent range of voices, young and older. In particular, the sopranos met the challenges of frequent visits to the upper register effortlessly, not least in Bruckner's Os Justi and Ecce Sacerdos. But, it would be wrong to single out the sopranos; there is excellence in all registers, though, very occasionally I might have wanted more 'underpinning' in the unaccompanied items.
For good measure, we also heard the English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble on period instruments. They brought a rich sonority to proceedings, not to mention some delightful and virtuosic 'interludes'. The combined choral and instrumental items were splendid, Gabrieli's In Ecclesias bringing the concert to a glorious conclusion.
This concert, supported by the Sir John Fisher Foundation, marked the culmination of Levens
Choir's 40th Anniversary year. It was a fitting tribute to all those years enriching the musical life of North-West England."
John Hiley
Concert featuring English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble
A concert of European Sacred Music with Levens Choir and ECSE
The concert celebrated Levens Choir's 40th year and included music by Bruckner, Belcke, Mendelssohn, Monteverdi, Guerrero, Handle, Victoria, and Gabrieli.
Review
"We have come to expect a lot from Ian Jones and Levens Choir: imaginative programming;
purposeful tempi; a wide dynamic range; good diction; attention to melodic line whichever part it's in, and exemplary intonation and blending of voices. Saturday evening's concert did not disappoint in any of these categories. Indeed, I'm not sure I've heard them sing better.
The choir is blessed with an excellent range of voices, young and older. In particular, the sopranos met the challenges of frequent visits to the upper register effortlessly, not least in Bruckner's Os Justi and Ecce Sacerdos. But, it would be wrong to single out the sopranos; there is excellence in all registers, though, very occasionally I might have wanted more 'underpinning' in the unaccompanied items.
For good measure, we also heard the English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble on period instruments. They brought a rich sonority to proceedings, not to mention some delightful and virtuosic 'interludes'. The combined choral and instrumental items were splendid, Gabrieli's In Ecclesias bringing the concert to a glorious conclusion.
This concert, supported by the Sir John Fisher Foundation, marked the culmination of Levens
Choir's 40th Anniversary year. It was a fitting tribute to all those years enriching the musical life of North-West England."
John Hiley
English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble
|
Saturday 9th April 2016, Cartmel Priory, 7.30pm and
Tuesday 12th April 2016, St Anne's, Ings, 7.30pm Celebration of Shakespeare's 400th and Levens Choir's 40th anniversary "At their concert given in Cartmel Priory on 9th April, Levens Choir celebrated two anniversaries: the 400th of the death of Shakespeare, and the 40th of the foundation of the choir. Their conductor Ian Jones, who formed the choir in 1976 and has conducted it throughout their forty years, had put together a very well-planned programme of settings of English music and verse: words by Shakespeare and his contemporaries and by more modern poets, together with readings from Shakespeare and others. It was a varied and well-balanced programme, in which the audience’s interest was held throughout... ...The programme included some unfamiliar pieces (unfamiliar to this reviewer, at least), whose discovery was one of the many pleasures of this concert. One such was the wonderful motet Faire is the Heaven, setting words by the Elizabethan poet Edmund Spenser to music for double choir by William Henry Harris. The choir gave this a splendid performance for which the Cartmel Priory acoustic was very well suited. More familiar were the Three Shakespeare Songs by Vaughan Williams, written as a test piece for a 1951 music festival. In the first of these, "Full Fathom Five", the choir imitates the sound of church bells... This was followed by works by Benjamin Britten, John Rutter, and finally Welcome Sweet and Sacred Feast by Gerald Finzi. This brought to an end a concert which had been most satisfying in both its structure and its performance." Martin Widden April 2016 |
|
Sunday 13th March 2016, St Marys, Borwick, 4.00pm
Music in Quiet Places
Conductor: Ian Jones
Programme:
Bob Chilcott, This Isle
Micheal Tippett, 5 Negro Sprituals
Anton Bruckner, Locus Iste
Claudio Monteverdi, Cantate Domino
William Harris, Faire is the Heaven
Francisco Guerrero, Ave Virgo Sanctissima
Thomas Tomkins, When David Heard
John Tavener, Love Bade Me Welcome
Anton Bruckner, Os Justi
Vaughan Williams, Valiant for Truth
Vaughan Williams, Over Hill, Over Dale
Music in Quiet Places
Conductor: Ian Jones
Programme:
Bob Chilcott, This Isle
Micheal Tippett, 5 Negro Sprituals
Anton Bruckner, Locus Iste
Claudio Monteverdi, Cantate Domino
William Harris, Faire is the Heaven
Francisco Guerrero, Ave Virgo Sanctissima
Thomas Tomkins, When David Heard
John Tavener, Love Bade Me Welcome
Anton Bruckner, Os Justi
Vaughan Williams, Valiant for Truth
Vaughan Williams, Over Hill, Over Dale