A lively evening filled with festive classics.
Festive jumpers, sparkly dresses, and the occasional set of deely boppers could be seen throughout last night’s audience at the Liverpool Philharmonic’s White Christmas concert.
Led by conductor Richard Balcombe, the orchestra was largely in big band jazz and swing mode for yesterday’s concert of seasonal tunes, with vocals by Graham Bickley, Stuart Matthew Price, Katie Birtill, and Abbie Osmon (the last filling in for Laura Tebutt, who was unfortunately unable to perform, in a manner both last-minute and expert).
The stage was bookended by two glittering trees, with projections of snowflakes dancing on the walls. The orchestra’s all-black attire contrasted nicely with the female singers’ dresses, whose costume change at the interval left them resplendent in full-length red sparkles and green satin.
The first instruments heard over the course of the evening were sleigh bells (appropriately) during the orchestra’s opening festive medley, which included a bossa nova-esque ‘Feliz Navidad’. The singers then led the way through
a delightfully easy-listening programme of seasonal showstoppers, peppered with some truly awful Christmas cracker jokes (the punchlines offered by the audience were better than the real ones – in response to “what do you call someone who doesn’t believe in Santa?”, someone in the row behind us offered “a non-believer?”). Highlights of the evening’s programme included Abbie Osmon’s ‘O Holy Night’, a beautiful rendition of what can be a tricky hymn, supported by alternately soft and soaring strings. This was well-contrasted by Katie Birtill’s ensuing playful, swing-style rendition of ‘The Man with the Bag’. Graham Bickley and Stuart Matthew Price sang a low-key and lovely version of ‘Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth’, and the strength of the quartet’s harmonising shone through during ‘It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year’, which sounded a beat-for-beat homage to the famed Andy Williams performance of the same song.
In terms of the orchestra, percussion, keys, and brass were the standout instruments, lending a continuous big band feel to the concert – this said, the glissando stringsHi during ‘Sleigh Ride’ took the piece to its next level, and the orchestra briefly took on a more traditional feel during a medley of various festive films scores towards the end of the evening. Another medley of more modern Christmas hits – think Wham, Mariah, Cliff and Elton – roused the crowd into a singalong mood, to ensure that we were primed and ready to join in with the evening’s encore, ‘I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas’.
While this glamourous evening of festive hits was, unfortunately for those who missed it, a one-night event, there’s plenty to come at the Liverpool Philharmonic to get you into a Christmassy mood, including various Spirit of Christmas concerts running from December 17th to 23rd, Candlelit Carols on December 20th, and a family concert centred around Santa over the weekend of December 21st and 22nd.