Margaret Symonds 'Flights of Fancy' Review - in its entirety

May 2011

Let's Do It by Cole Porter opened the delightful program called Flights of Fancy at the Serendipity: the Choir concert on the afternoon of Saturday, May 14, at the Bowral Uniting Church Hall.

There were well-known songs, popular toe-tappers, a gem from Lennon and McCartney, folk songs, art songs, sacred works, music to celebrate the month of May and Elizabeth I, and the dearly loved "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square". In Manchai Puito, an Argentine folk song, a solo voice in one section glided from note to note like the voice of the bird itself.

The program contained great variety, from the well-known to the quite unusual. There was captivating beauty in such pieces as In The Woods, She's Like the Swallow (a folk song from Newfoundland in which the ebb and flow of the music resembles that of waves on the shore), Byrd's Ave Verum Corpus, Mendelssohn's Die Nachtigall, Byrd's Sing Joyfully, and the superb presentation of the Aesop fable, The Goose and the Swan, by Chilcott, at the conclusion of which a magic power inherent in music was revealed to the listener.

Birds chirping in French about love, English birds, a composer called Byrd, yellow birds, blackbirds, mediaeval birds, whistling birds, birds with surprisingly deep voices, joyous birds, mournful birds, birds in company, solitary birds, a most interesting sparrow, a humble cricket, musical surprises, fun, sorrow, reverence, naughtiness and silliness - all these entertained the audience.

Those Magnificent Men revealed what it is like for humans to operate flying machines and the program concluded with the inspiring Wings by Strommen, lifting the voices of the choir and the hearts of the listeners as they soared like eagles.

This concert will be repeated next Saturday, May 22, at the Bundanoon Hall, at 3pm.