Diana has asked me to add a few more words about the music. In doing so, I shall have to abandon her policy of discreet anonymity, not least since I think we owe a special debt of gratitude to our professional musicians, who very generously gave their services without charge. When he gave me his wish list, Alan drew my attention to the fact that his choice was almost entirely from the 17th and 18th centuries he did not dislike more modern music, but it was the classical period that he loved, especially opera.
The evening began and ended with a flourish of trumpets. The Lord gave the word, the choral fanfare for the company of preachers which opens Part III of Handel’s Messiah, is as bold a trumpet call as Purcell’s Sound the Trumpet, the last solo of the evening, which was confidently delivered by Clare Dawson after the reading of three short extracts from Alan’s sermons, before we all raised the roof with Thine be the glory, another triumphant Handelian melody. Each group of readings was rounded off with music that encapsulated the mood so skilfully established by the readers. Clare Dawson gave us a suitably romantic reading of Mignon, Ruth Trawford’s warm mezzo was displayed to great advantage in a rich account of Va tacito e nacosto from Handel’s Giulio Cesare, and Ed Price made the perfect foil to both Clare and Ruth in two engagingly presented Mozart duets. I particularly enjoyed his suavely suggestive presentation of La ci darem la mano. All the singers were accompanied with great sensitivity by Jonathan Beatty at the piano, or by Lee Ward at the organ, both of whom doubled as singers in the two unaccompanied madrigals. The spirit in which so much was so well done was itself a fitting tribute to Alan’s love of music, and to his warm support for those whose skill and commitment enrich the worship which he valued so highly, and where the excellence of his own contribution will be so sorely missed.
Handley Stevens
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Remembering Alan – postscript
Handley Stevens