Author: Joan Houlihan

It took a moment to realise that the first page of the programme was written in Italian – even to the date of the day. This was the first surprise of the evening in which the Bollington Festival Choir for a few hours took their audience away to Italy in their summer concert: and what […]

It was a happy choice for the Bollington Festival Choir and Orchestra to present a Requiem Mass by Michael Haydn followed by the ‘Coronation’ Mass of Mozart. The Michael Haydn Mass, though not being a major work in the choral repertoire, is a fine and pleasing piece. It kept to the solemnity of the Mass […]

It was impressive to see the Festival Choir and Orchestra, led by their conductor Donald Judge, walk into place, their usual dress changed to black and only a vivid spot of colour from a blood red poppy at the shoulder of each person to relieve the gravity. This concert was rather a meditation on the […]

Concerts at Christmas usually follow a pattern that is well-trodden and well-loved: but not so this time, with this concert. It was a kaleidoscope of carols and motets from differing folk cultures, composers and languages, ranging over four centuries and more, and all held together as a continuous stream of music and song inviting us […]

The perfect English summer’s day needed something alive and beautiful to bring it to a fitting end: and what better than the sound of English song and music in an old village church in the quiet of the evening. The Festival Choir of Bollington gave their listeners such an evening at St. Oswald’s Church last […]

Mendelssohn’s oratorio ‘St. Paul’ has not become a familiar part of the main oratorio repertoire in this country: and yet it was a very welcome surprise to hear the Bollington Festival Choir and Chamber Orchestra perform this work at the Arts Centre on Palm Sunday. It has not the spiritual power and magnificence of ‘The […]