Choirs Fill Church To Capacity

Illogan Church was packed on the evening of Sunday 18 th April to hear the world renowned Hermitage Ensemble in Concert with Four Lanes Male Choir one of Cornwall’s finest male voice choirs.

The Hermitage Ensemble gave a dynamic display of their power and versatility and chose examples of Russian sacred music to fill the first half of their performance.

These pieces gave their wonderful voices every opportunity to demonstrate professional range and control and the superb acoustics at Illogan Parish Church allowed the audience to enjoy every rich note and word.

The second part of Hermitage’s performance included traditional Russian folk songs and the Ensemble portrayed these with great emotion and humour and even included The Beatles’ Yesterday in their repertoire.

The haunting melodies will stay with the audience for a long time to come and the several encores were a statement as to how much their singing was enjoyed.

Four Lanes Male Choir too were in fine voice and under the leadership of Alastair Taylor and Accompanist Michael Uren on piano and organ it thrilled the audience with items such as Mozart’s Isis and Osiris and Hughes’ Thou Gavest.

The choir’s performance of unaccompanied pieces such as Schubert’s Sanctus and Brahms’ Sleep Baby Sleep received particular acclaim from the large and responsive audience.

This was a great evening of singing and Cornwall is fortunate in being able to present and enjoy concerts of this quality .

Sixty Five Years of Service to Remembrance Day

On Sunday 8 th November Four Lanes Male Choir marked sixty five years of service to the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal with a Festival of Remembrance Concert at St Anta Church Carbis Bay. The choir was formed in 1944 to welcome back troops returning from D Day and has grown from the sixteen original members to a choir of some seventy voices. It has performed at such services and concerts ever since.

Still perfoming in the tenor section is Albert Kemp of Four Lanes who was a member of the original choir and had the privilege of receiving a certificate from the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal on behalf of the choir to mark its sixty five years of service.

This was presented by Lady Mary Holborrow Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall.

The packed audience were treated to a concert of great variety and under the baton of Musical Director Alastair Taylor, Accompanist Michael Uren and Deputy Accompanist Joanne Courtney the choir performed with passion and sensitivity.

Pieces ranged from the moving “For the Fallen and “Mansions of the Lord” to the powerful “The Old Brigade” and the intense “Soldiers Farewell.”

To mark the occasion the choir performed “Comrades Song of Hope” as a conclusion to the concert. This was the very piece that had closed the choir’s first concert in 1944.