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REVIEW: Christmas Concerts, Chichester Festival Theatre, until Saturday.
The choir of Bishop Luffa School provides the most magical moments in this year's series of CFT Christmas concerts.
They steal the first half with their gorgeous Mary, Did You Know? and they steal the second with their version of the Calypso Carol.
But in between there is much else to savour from the other contributors - even if the series is much more of a mixed bag than usual this year.
Sarah Baldock, in her first year as master of the Chichester Cathedral choristers, shows herself a worthy successor to Alan Thurlow; and the Band of HM Royal Marines gets the second half off to a thrilling start with Uncanny and Children Of Sanchez.
The problem, though, is the readings. The Larkin lost me within seconds; and the Frayn rambled on interminably to go nowhere in particular.
Against that, the piece from the trenches was greatly affecting, superbly delivered by Philip Franks, an assured and genial host, ably assisted this year by Isla Blair.
But there remains a slight feeling that the whole thing hasn't been quite thought through as fully as usual. The sing-along carols really oughtn't to have included a couple most people had clearly never heard before. Lo, How A Rose E'er Blooming wasn't ever going to get a thousand people up and singing.
And surely someone ought to have realised that this year isn't the centenary of Vaughan Williams' death; it's the 50th anniversary.
So all in all, not quite a vintage year at the CFT - but the Bishop Luffa Choir, so attentive to their conductor Huw Thomas, are more than enough to take away at the end of it, certainly one of the most memorable things I've seen on the CFT stage this year.
Phil Hewitt
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Weather for Chichester
Tuesday 14 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 6 C to 9 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 4 C to 10 C
Wind Speed: 22 mph
Wind direction: North west
