“Winter Nights” Reviews, June 2023
This performance was recorded live.
Available to enjoy online via Australian Digital Concert Hall.
Reviews
ARTShub
Music review: Winter Nights
Matthew Collins | 26 June 2023
It was a crisp and frosty evening in the Walsh Bay Arts Precinct, …, when audiences were invited to be warmed up in Winter Nights by the resonant voices of the Sydney Chamber Choir. Artistic director Sam Allchurch directed and conducted the performance with guest director Naomi Crellin.
Allchurch and Crellin devised a pleasant and deceptively simple collage of music that was engaging throughout. Well-known tunes such as the buoyant ‘Windmills of Your Mind’ and Cole Porter’s ‘I Love Paris’ were interspersed with classical pieces from Debussy and Ravel. The evening also featured the premiere of Australian composer Heather Percy’s ‘Three Night Songs’, an evocative and mesmerising musical trilogy ...
CityHub
Winter Nights: Sydney Chamber Choir
Rita Bratovich | 25 June 2023
On a clear, still winter night, in the cosy setting of The Neilson in Walsh Bay, the dulcet harmonies of the Sydney Chamber Choir warmed hearts and souls with a pleasing program of French tunes.
With conductor, Sam Allchurch at the helm, the ensemble performed works by noted classical and contemporary composers, sometimes singing a capella, sometimes with the backing of a jazz trio featuring Steve Barry (piano), Hannah James (double bass) and George Greenhill (drums).
A selection of songs were performed by guest artist, Jo Lawry, who brought vim and vivaciousness to the stage in addition to stunning vocals.
classikON
Sydney Chamber Choir – the whole effect was, quite simply, adorable
Brianna Louwen | 26 June 2023
“That was the Sydney Chamber Choir, if you can believe it!” The words of Sam Allchurch, Artistic Director of the Sydney Chamber Choir, hit the mark perfectly during their ‘Winter Nights’ program on Saturday evening. From the moment the audience entered at stage level into the beautiful Neilson Room, it was clear this was not a ‘regular choral concert’.
One of the most enjoyable aspects of the evening was the curation of the atmosphere throughout. Both Naomi and Sam were charming comperes … Each transition had been well-planned, and the Neilson was used to great effect from the lighting through to the seating, staging and everything in-between.
It is a rare thing indeed to see a concert so beautifully curated as ‘Winter Nights’.
Limelight
Winter Nights (Sydney Chamber Choir)
Steve Moffatt | 27 June 2023
Audience members may well have come away from the latest Sydney Chamber Choir concert exclaiming “vive la difference!” for an adventurous and usual programme which blended the best of choral singing with some jazz – all with a strong French accent.
The brainchild of guest director Naomi Crellin – the singer, composer and arranger best known for her work with Idea of North – Winter Nights was set in the intimate The Nielson auditorium with tables in cabaret setting in front of the stalls and surrounding balcony.
A jazz trio set the scene for a blend of songs by Debussy, Poulenc and Ravel conducted by Artistic Director Sam Allchurch, interspersed with jazz vocals from South Australia’s Jo Lawry, best known as backing singer for Sting and now leading the Equity in Jazz programme at the Sydney Conservatorium. Crellin’s choral arrangements of French standards by Michel Legrand, Jacques Brel and Edith Piaf also featured.
Sounds Like Sydney
Concert Review: Winter Nights/Sydney Chamber Choir
Shamistha de Soysa | 26 June 2023
They crooned and scatted, bobbed and whistled. This was the Sydney Chamber Choir in alter-ego mode, presenting Winter Nights, a concert program with a fresh twist.
As well as the Gallic influence to this program, several selections represented the secondary themes of winter, sleep and darkness. There were Percy’s Three Night Songs, …, Poulenc’s Un soir de neige, the choir showing beautiful dynamic control at the extremes of their range in the third of these, Bois meurtri, and an incandescent rendition of Eric Whitacre’s Sleep in which the ensemble flagged its roots in the classical style. They performed this surreal lullaby with vivid word-painting and disquieting fortissimo, waning to the faintest of pianissimo in a gently rocking finish.
The Sydney Chamber Choir is an ensemble that is consistently excellent in its performances, both artistically and technically.
“The seductive beauty of French song: join us for an intimate evening featuring timeless ballads by cabaret legends Edith Piaf and Jacques Brel, irresistible flights of fantasy from Debussy and Ravel, while Poulenc reveals the dark secrets concealed by stillness in his winter cycle A Snowy Evening. Australian composer Heather Percy explores the mysterious beauties of day’s end in the world premiere performance of her Three Night Songs, and choral icon Eric Whitacre carries us gently into the mysterious world of dreams with the lush harmonies of Sleep.”
Artists
Sydney Chamber Choir
Sam Allchurch
Conductor
Naomi Crellin
Guest Director
Jo Lawry
Vocalist
Jazz trio
Steve Barry
Piano
Hannah James
Double bass
George Greenhill
Drums
Program
Jacques Brel arr Crellin
Ne me quitte pas
Vernon Duke/Yip Harburg arr Crellin
April in Paris
Louiguy/Edith Piaf arr Crellin
La vie en rose
Michel Legrand/Alan and Marilyn Bergman arr Crellin
The Windmills of Your Mind
Sting and Dominic Miller
arr Crellin
La belle dame sans regrets
Claude Debussy
Trois Chansons de Charles d'Orléans
Heather Percy
Three Night Songs
Francis Poulenc
Un soir de neige
Maurice Ravel
Trois Chansons
Eric Whitacre
Sleep