John Rutter and Bath Camerata bring Christmas Joy to Bath!

“A fabulous concert last night”….  “Absolutely Brilliant…best night out for ages”.   Just two of the audience comments following this year’s Camerata Christmas concerts in St. Mary’s Bathwick on Monday 20 December under the magical direction of the man who is so closely associated with Christmas carols – John Rutter.

After the debacle of Christmas 2020, when our concert had been cancelled, Camerata revelled in the opportunity to sing out the Christmas carols once again under John’s direction, and our audiences responded lustily, despite their masks….   This year, we had to contend not only with the constraints of Covid, but with the failure of the organ in St. Mary’s (it died the day before the concert).  Some rapid improvisation with an electronic keyboard and a couple of powerful speakers saved the day, and huge credit goes to Huw Williams,  Director of Music at Bath Abbey and our accompanist on this occasion, for adapting so readily to the different instrument.

This year’s programme had a pan-European flavour, with beautiful early works by Praetorius, Guerrero and Palestrina in addition to folk carols from Spain (“Riu, Riu, Chiu” and “El Noi de la Mare”) and “La Berceuse” – a traditional French lullaby to a delightful modern tune composed by a Scotswoman!

We were enormously fortunate to rehearse for this concert with the renowned choral conductor and former King’s Singer Simon Carrington.  So John reserved a surprise Christmas cracker for the encore – the classic King’s Singers version of “Jingle Bells” by Gordon Langford – and generously invited Simon to conduct.   Needless to say, the audience loved it.

This was our third Christmas concert with John Rutter.  We owe John a huge debt of gratitude for his enthusiasm, his knowledge of the choral repertoire and for the wonderful rapport he builds with our audiences.  And thank you, John, for your new version of the “Linden Tree Carol” which you dedicated to us this year. 

And finally –  thank you to the audience member who rang in to Classic FM last week to thank John and “the fabulous Bath Camerata” for the magical time you had enjoyed at this year’s Bath Camerata Christmas concert.

 Concert review by Graham Shaw (tenor / Chair of Bath Camerata committee)