Any musician will tell you that there is nothing quite like the feeling of performing live to an audience. For our boys, the pandemic has meant that the opportunities to perform live, particularly in larger groups, have been relatively sparse over the past two years. Therefore, it is wonderful to see large-scale concerts returning to our calendar. On Wednesday, our Spring Chamber Concert takes place in the Music School Recital Hall featuring our various instrumental and choral groups. Then, on Sunday 20 March, we see the return of the annual Choral Society Concert, a truly collaborative affair, featuring instrumentalists and singers from Bedford School alongside girls from Bedford Girls’ School and members of the Eagle Choir, made up of parents, staff and friends of the schools.
Rehearsals are well underway, for orchestra and choirs alike, of Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Oratorio. The former Beatle is arguably one the most successful popular composers of his generation. His Liverpool Oratorio is, however, his first venture into the classical idiom and was written in collaboration with composer Carl Davis, who is best known for his masterly television and film scores. Set in the traditional oratorio form, the work comprises eight movements with a huge variety of styles and forms of both orchestral and choral repertoire, from chorales through to almost Wagnerian orchestration in places.
Dominic Keating-Roberts, Director of Music at Bedford Girls’ School and Director of this performance, told us, “The work was selected as it provided scope to be very inclusive chorally, allowing for us to include Junior and Prep singers alongside the full chorus. Throughout, there are many examples of the typical McCartney melodic ideas synonymous with his writing in The Beatles and in his current writing, too. The lush orchestration of Carl Davies provides the opportunity for a full symphony orchestra to be utilised, which presents opportunities to include all our orchestral instruments, with an extensive percussion section.” The younger members of the Chapel Choir and the Bedford Girls’ School Junior Choir are representing Paul McCartney’s school life and singing the parts of the school students. The older boys and girls singing, along with the Eagle Choir members, form the Chorus, who, as Mr Keating-Roberts explained, will be “singing as the ghosts of the past through to the working people of Liverpool and just about everything in between highlighting the narrative throughout the work”.
Like the choirs, the orchestra is a collaboration between Bedford School and Bedford Girls’ School, with boys and girls playing in each section of the orchestra. They are joined by Visiting Music Teachers from both schools, as well as additional friends of both schools, including parents and former students. It can even be boasted that all the soloists are drawn from our schools’ communities, both so rich in musical talent. Soprano Lottie Bagnall is a Visiting Music Teacher at Pilgrims Pre Preparatory School and here at Bedford School, Mezzo Soprano Bethany Remfry is a Visiting Music Teacher at Bedford Girls’ School, Tenor Harry Bagnall is the former Director of the Eagle Choir who now sings with them, and the Bass is Adrian Finch, our very own Director of IB. The Treble solo part will be sung by Chapel Choir member Alexander Olleson (Remove Form), winner of the BBC Young Chorister of the Year in 2020.
This exciting concert takes place in our Great Hall on Sunday 20 March, from 7.30pm, and admission is free. The work contains many examples of rhythms and melodies reminiscent of The Beatles’ anthology, which makes it, as Mr Keating-Roberts put it, a “wonderfully accessible piece to listen to”. We do hope you will join us to support the singers and instrumentalists in this exciting venture.