Carmina Burana brought to life by
Wolverhampton Grammar School Choral Society

March saw the Choral Society entrance its audience with a stunning performance of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana.

Our singers, both young and old, brought to life all the earthy pleasures described so vividly in the medieval manuscript from which Orff took the texts for his distinctly 20th-Century music. Under Mr Proverbs’s inspiring direction there was a real focus, a buzz and a sharpness about the singing.

There’s a deliberately primitive character to the music which makes it great to hear, but often difficult (or downright impossible) to sing. So the voices had to indulge in a fair amount of gymnastics to bring the performance off: even the hair-raising unaccompanied male-voice sections were utterly convincing: not because, as in some schools, there are adults to help out, but because our student tenors and basses sing with such confidence and accuracy that the teachers and parents who join in learn from them.

This super performance was introduced by two great individual student achievements. The invited orchestra accompanied Year 11 student Susannah Raymond-Barker playing Gerald Finzi’s exquisite Eclogue for Piano and String Orchestra – and playing with artistry and accomplishment far beyond her years. Before that we heard a piece written for organ and three trumpets by Lower Sixth former James Proctor: his In Basilica was a rich soundscape of pomp and grandeur, space and echo recalling the confusion of religious fervour and temporal power on which the glory of Renaissance Venice was built.

What talent so many students displayed, and what enjoyment they gave!