Festive
Events in Colyton
John Dalton looks ahead to the musical offerings in Colyton this coming festive season
The carol service at St. Andrew’s Church is always the focus of Christmas celebrations in Colyton. This year it takes place on Sunday, December 17, at 6.30pm.
Opening in the traditional way, the candlelit church will echo to the sound of the lone chorister singing the first verse of Once in Royal David’s City with the remaining verses taken up in procession by St. Andrew’s very fine choir.
The order of service will contain a mixture of carols and Christmas music for both choir and congregational participation. Included will be a setting by organist and master of the choristers, Nicholas Brown, of words by the 6th century Greek saint Romanos the Singer, entitled A Christmas Hymn. There will also be carols by the popular John Rutter, and the Ave Maria from Rachmaninov’s Vespers, sung in Old Church Slavonic.
This is always a very popular event and the advice is turn up early or it is likely to be standing room only.
St. Andrew’s Parish Church will also be the venue for an attractive concert to be given by the Isca Quartet at 7.30pm on Saturday, December 2. This quartet, consisting of some of the leading players in East Devon, has become well known since it was formed two or three years ago. It gives concerts throughout East Devon and as far afield as Gloucestershire. The Colyton concert will be given in conjunction with the town’s Grammar School and will seek to raise money for the sixth form’s chosen charity, Wateraid, which provides equipment to third world countries to purify their water.
Two of the greatest chamber music works in the repertory will be played – Mozart’s G minor Quintet, K.516, and Schubert’s C major Quintet. In the Mozart they will be joined by an additional viola and in the Schubert by an additional cello. Mozart wrote his quintet in 1787 and it mirrored his personal tragedy at the time. He had come to the realisation that, despite his genius, he had failed as a composer with the people of Vienna. His father died two weeks after the quintet was finished and he was getting deeper and deeper into debt. Choosing what was a very special key for him, this work, together with the great G minor Symphony, written a year later, constitutes the most personal music that Mozart ever wrote.
The Schubert quintet is also a very poignant work. Arguably the greatest piece of chamber music ever written, and with unsurpassing beauty, it was finished in October 1828, within a few weeks of his tragically early death in November. The composer never saw it in print and it didn’t receive a public performance until 1850.
On listening to the indescribable beauty of this music it is difficult to believe that Schubert was not aware of his approaching end. It was undoubtedly his ambition to become the recognized successor of Beethoven and with this incomparable work he could not have established a greater claim.
This is a concert not to be missed this Christmas. Tickets at £5 are available from the school, or at the door.
Colyton Grammar School
• Festive evening in Cottrill Hall on Saturday, December 9 at 7pm.
• Carol service at the church on the following day, Monday, December 18.
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