A summer sojourn - in concert with the Caritas Ensemble

Cultural activities continued last night with The Caritas Ensemble's summer concert, A summer sojourn, at St Nicholas' Church in the Market Place. This was my first chamber concert in Durham, so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, but the group's online description of their performances including lesser-known works caught my eye (as did their aim of raising money for local charities).

An audience of about 20-30 had assembled by the start of the concert, which began with a familiar work, Debussy's Syrinx for solo flute, setting the atmosphere for the evening. The lesser-known works were all in the first half, of which I most enjoyed Lennox Berkeley's Six Preludes - pianist Emily Murray performed 'moderato', 'lento' and 'allegro'. A clear debt to Debussy, but still extremely enjoyable. Less enjoyable, for me at least, were excerpts from Richard Rodney Bennett's Sounds and Sweet Aires - a very high quality performance but the works felt a little erratic; possibly the room acoustics (or I have very sensitive ears) but some of the oboe and flute parts were quite harsh at times!

The second half of the evening was themed around song, with excerpts from various operas. Arne's setting of Where the Bee Sucks from The Tempest was excellent; the evening finished with an excerpt from Die Fledermaus - witty repartee between Eisenstein and Rosalinde. Hilariously funny and quite probably the audience favourite!

A summer sojourn was raising money for local charity Heel and Toe, which provides conductive education 6 days a week to children with cerebral palsy, dyspraxia and other motor disorders, whilst reliant solely on donations and fundraising.

All in all a fun evening out and I look forward to more concerts in the city!

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