HOLY TRINITY CHURCH

Saturday 3 February 2007 at 7.30pm

A large audience was delighted by the concert given by the Sirenian Singers in Holy Trinity Church as part of the Oswestry School Recital Series.  This highly successful choir, based in Wrexham, has won many prestigious prizes in competition, culminating in the Choir of the Year Award in the International Eisteddford at Llangollen.

Their versatility as a choir showed through in the extraordinary range of the programme, with music ranging from Pachelbel right through to the present day, and coming from a wide range of countries and languages.  Works like Handel's wonderful anthem 'Zadok the Priest' allowed the choir to reveal power and a sense of grandeur, whereas an intricately syncopated wedding piece from the Zulu tribe had the audience swaying excitedly in time with the choir.

Two soloists from the ranks of the choir provided a change of texture, their contributions including the lovely 'Pie Jesu' by Andrew Lloyd Webber.  John Taverner's 'Song for Athene' (sung at the funeral of Princess Diana) was sung by the full choir with deep feeling, its haunting harmonies sounding just right in the lovely acoustic of Holy Trinity's ideal setting.

The spoken introductions given by the choir's conductor, Jean Stanley Jones, added yet further to the evening's pleasure, and the warm, prolongued applause which followed the final item was a clear indication of the delight felt by one and all.

The next concert in the Recital Series will be a cello and piano recital given by Adrian Brendel (son of the great pianist Alfred, coming to Oswestry in June) and the pianist Tim Horton.