Church Mouse joined other audience members who crept out on a very cold evening last Friday to attend a concert of Hereford Cathedral School Music Scholars in St.Michael and All Angels, Ledbury. Once the county’s biggest and most important church, it is home to a variety of memorials including a C13th priest in vestments, Elizabeth and Edward Skynner with their five boys and five girls resplendent in C17th costumes and John Masefield. St. Michael’s also hosts two paintings of The Last Supper, one of which has now been linked to Venetian Master Titian’s workshop.
All of us were entertained by a varied programme of music produced by HCS’s extremely talented pupils.Instruments included the voice, piano, violin, trombone, clarinet and trumpet, while the performances were like a musical bouquet composed of individual, different but beautiful blooms. J.S. Bach and Joseph Haydn found themselves keeping company with Kurt Weill and Jerome Kern, “Dances with Bears” heard in the same programme as “Meditation from Thais” by Massenet. Thanks to St. Michael’s, the accompanying music staff from HCS, but mostly to the young musicians, whose performances were much enjoyed by the audience, judging by the many complimentary remarks.