By Giordano Durante

Candles and a Christmas tree festooned with lights greeted the audience yesterday evening at the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity for the Gibraltar Classical Music Society’s ‘Carols by Candlelight’ concert, a lively celebration of traditional and popular festive music featuring the InCantus and Harmonics choirs with the Prior Park School Choir as guests. 

The concert started off strongly with both resident choirs singing ‘O Come all ye Faithful’, accompanied by Phillip Borge McCarthy on piano and conducted by Anthony Roper de Almeida. The different vocal textures came across clearly, especially in the a cappella parts. The choirs then answered each other in the jaunty exchanges of ‘It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas’ and the ‘Nutcracker Jingle’, a curious combination of Christmas classics with melodies from Tchaikovsky’s ballet. This was a challenging work for the choirs requiring rapid shifts in tempo and mood but they pulled it off confidently. 

InCantus was then in the spotlight for two pieces: the simple and affecting ‘The Hands that First Held Mary’s Child’ and ‘O Holy Night’ which saw the sopranos’ voices rising marvellously. 

Then it was the turn of the Prior Park Choir, conducted by Mae Easter. They started with ‘Night of Silence’, their confidence growing as they reached the end of the song. Then the school choir covered ‘Mary’s Boy Child’, accompanied by piano (Christopher McAuliffe), cajón (box drum), guitar (the enthusiastic Chris Harris), maracas and tambourines—this put me in mind of a campfire warming a gathering of travelling musicians improvising.

All three choirs then came together for ‘The Little Drummer Boy’, a well-integrated performance that had the audience clapping away.

One of the highlights of the evening was the unexpected work performed by the Prior Park Choir, an inventive medley of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ and William Gomez’s ‘Ave Maria’, arranged by Mae Easter. Then the choir launched into the crowd-pleasing villancico ‘Los Peces en el Rio’, the cajón lending their rendition a flamenco touch. 

Another high point was InCantus singing the ‘Carol of the Bells’, a virtuoso piece now easily identifiable from its use in Christmas adverts. The choir maintained the demanding, almost breathless tempo and navigated the score’s polyphonic shifts with skill. 

Harmonics then performed ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ following Phillip Borge McCarthy’s leisurely piano intro—his accompaniment throughout the night was scrupulous. This choral arrangement of this Christmas song—originally by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane—underscored the value of local choirs exploring pieces that are so familiar they’re practically the soundtrack to modern life. Once this song’s vocal lines were distributed across the singers of this experienced choir, even music which blares annually from tinny speakers in shops was revitalised. Such familiarity must never blunt our appreciation of what a fresh approach can reveal for us; we come away, it seems, with a new understanding and love for the music—surely this is the sign of any successful performance.

‘I’ll Be Home for Christmas’ was given a well-paced, wistful performance—we could easily picture the melancholy solider posted abroad writing to his family. 

All three choirs then joined forces for ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’ and then ‘Jingle Bells’ as their encore, two works full of joy and passion with the sopranos in particular really letting go in the closing phrases. 

Once again, the Gibraltar Classical Music Society is successfully fulfilling its aim to open up music to all. They’ve hit upon a formula that works: a relaxed atmosphere free from the stuffiness often associated with church concerts, affordable tickets, performers who enjoy what they sing and a choice of repertoire that blends the familiar with the more daring and innovative. It’s also worth noting that they are facilitating greater collaboration between choirs of different ages and abilities and, in their previous concert in October,  even linking with choirs across the border. This can only benefit audiences and performers. 

Sold out performances like yesterday’s will reassure them that they should continue down this path and now expand even further, perhaps by exploring chamber and solo instrumental music in the year to come. 

For further info about the society and upcoming concerts, visit: https://thegibraltarclassicalmusicsociety.com