The Sixth Form College Farnborough

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Students from Farnborough Sixth Form College captivated the congregation in St Andrew’s Garrison Church on Friday with a beautiful evening of music at the College’s Baroque Christmas Concert.  

 

The evening began with Charpentier’s Kyrie from the Messe de Minuit pour Noel, so wonderfully intoned by the College Chamber Choir that it seemed too high an expectation that such quality would be maintained throughout the concert.  It was followed by two delightful chorales written for the Lutheran Church in Germany shortly after the Reformation. Soloists Madeleine Sakakini (soprano), Katy Ovens (alto), William Malins (tenor) and William Etheridge (Bass) filled the church with their stunning unaccompanied harmony in A Great and Mighty Wonder by Praetoius, only to be matched by Jessica Mabin, Katy Nagle and Stephen Mills who joined William Etheridge in a perfect rendition of J S Bach’s O Little Sweet One.

 

Director of Music Paul Bambrough’s choice of Monteverdi’s Beatus Vir, a setting of Psalm 112, enabled the chamber choir to show their strength, maturity and versatility as they triumphed in this next dramatic work scored for six-part chorus and soloists.

 

The student voices were able to rest during Samuel Cleeve’s solo violin performance of J S Bach’s Partita no 2 in D minor, which he played without score in a magnificent and passionate rendition, with great depth of feeling bringing sustained applause from the appreciative and delighted concert-goers.

 

Finally, the 100-strong Choral Society performed Vivaldi’s Gloria in D, a joyful hymn of praise and worship. Solo parts were sung with confidence and beauty by sopranos Jessica Mabin, Nancy Reynolds and Charlotte Cartwright, Alto Katy Nagle and Baritone Jacob Howells-Jones but the whole choir sang with a strength and beauty more characteristic of a professional group than one would expect of a sixth form college choir.

 

The evening was a triumph for Director of Music Paul Bambrough, who had put together a wonderful Christmas offering, but especially for the talented students. Thanking them after the concert, Principal Dr John Guy said, “I am not sure if, as performers, you realise just how wonderful it has been to listen to this evening’s concert  - it has indeed been a privilege to be present.”