Glorious Christmas music in Bolton-le-Sands

And that is exactly what the highly talented and well directed Levens Choir gave us this year. In ‘Now may we Singen’ (Saturday, December 14) we had an ambitiously selected and beautifully polished programme.

The title piece is by Cecilia McDowall, a delightfully syncopated and sprightly carol combining medieval English words (‘And thus it is forsooth y-wis’) with modern rhythms and chords. The first half gave us Eric Whitacre’s deeply contemplative ‘Lux Aurumque’ and works by Herbert Howells and Peter Warlock. Among my favourites was Howells’s ‘A spotless rose’, with the solo phrases hanging faultlessly over the choral part.

We were also treated to ‘The Angel Gabriel from Heaven came’, arranged by Willcocks, and the extraordinary liquid numinosity of Lauridsen’s ‘O Magnum Mysterium’, meditating on the part played by animals in the Christmas story.

In the Coventry Carol, the choir effortlessly negotiated the switches between major and minor which are so thrilling for the audience. The 20th century English revival by Parry, Walton, Holst and Wood, was wonderfully represented: I particularly admired the angular joy of William Walton’s ‘What cheer?’

The Levens Choir sound is distinctive, with very strong ensemble unity, excellent diction, and full-throated passion. In Gawain Glenton this choir has a very distinguished and capable musical director.

Together they bring us an original, stimulating selection, a fresh musical perspective on Christmas. Long may they continue!

Review - Mark Chater