The Trinity Remembrance Concert

I attended two concerts over the weekend of Remembrance Sunday. On Sunday evening I was at St Faith's Crosby to hear the Crosby Symphony Orchestra and on Saturday evening I was in Holy Trinity Southport to hear a concert that included Faure's Requiem. Below is a report from the churches newssheet written by Bob Ball who was one of the soloists on the evening. It was a brilliant and up to the high standard that Southport people have learnt to expect from Holy Trinity.


Last Saturday, 12th November, we had a really splendid evening at the biennial Trinity Concert.  Many people were involved in working for and performing in this event - too many for us to write to individually with our gratitude;  would all of you please accept a great big “thank you” through this diary for all that you did to make the concert such a success.

A large audience joined the Mayor and Mayoress to enjoy some thrilling performances and a very appropriate act of remembrance as the concert fell between Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday and close to both the centenary of the end of The Battle of the Somme and the anniversary of the bombing of Coventry Cathedral on 14th November 1940. 

The young choristers of Holy Trinity were in fine form and we were thrilled by the singing of Kirsteen Robson, still feeling very much at home here as she always tells me.  The church and chapel choirs were augmented by some good friends, some of whom had travelled a long way to be with us.  We are so fortunate to be able to call on such talent.  We heard First World War poetry read by Daphne Wigmore and Rod Garner, and Charles Cowling joined Kirsteen and me for some of the solos.  Our good friend Prof Ian Tracey was magnificent as always on both piano and organ and the whole thing was directed by our own Ian Wells (my accompanist on the evening as well).  We just couldn't achieve such standards without Ian's training and direction. 

Perhaps the high point of the evening was a moving performance of the Fauré Requiem, a work that allows the choir a very wide dynamic range and the organist some soaring lines and beautiful harmonies, whilst transporting us away from any fear of death into a world of serenity and perfect consolation, concluding with the glorious ‘In Paradisum’.  All in all, an emotional evening of remembrance; it was certainly a concert to remember.

The concert was, after all, a fundraising event for the choir and proceeds will amount to about £650; a great help towards the cost of our Singing Week visit to Exeter Cathedral next summer.  The concert was recorded and we hope to have a CD available for sale before too long. Thank you to everyone who took part, helped or supported.