Letters to Kah-Ming Ng, musical director & keyboard continuo player

 

Dear Kah-Ming ...


Dr Edward Higginbottom (Director, Choir of New College, Oxford)
Very good to be in on the show, and have the opportunity of working with CA. My privilege entirely, and I hope I wasn't too bossy! The choristers were very taken with the band's sonorities, rather different (and pleasingly so) from the standard 'baroque' ensemble. And a very nice group of people.

 

Robert Sharpe (Director of Music, York Minster)
It was a real treat having you all here and especially seeing you again. I hope it might be the first of many performances of this kind. You were all so accommodating and easy which was great. Please convey my thanks to the other players.

 

John Taylor (bass guitarist, Duran Duran)
You guys were great! Everybody was most complimentary about your music, and I appreciate how easy you and your fellows were to deal with. I am already planning a summer party outdoors, and Gela wants to do the 30th again next year, so I hope you'll be available!

 

Neil Dennis (Chairman, Wimbledon Choral Society)
For info: we’re in the middle of interviewing for Michael’s replacement as MD, starting September 2009. Every time we’ve mentioned CA to any of the interviewees, the response every time has been along the lines of “Oh wow, fantastic – they’re really good”.

 

Leo Hussain (Conductor, Newbury Choral Society)
Huge thanks to you all for Saturday. I was extremely grateful for the input, patience and professionalism of the orchestra during what was a pretty punishing day for us all, I think! It is always a privilege for the chorus to have an orchestra in, and I know that not only did they enjoy working with you hugely, they were also very grateful for the period instruments (they were a little resistant to the idea at the first stage of planning!) For me, it was certainly refreshing to have such a vibrant, energetic, responsive, and extremely collaborative group to work with. And special thanks for the beautiful orchestral solos throughout the night. And I should pass on to you, too, the extremely positive feedback various chorus members have received from the audience regarding both the concert as a whole, and the playing.

 

Dr Jonathan Williams (Conductor, Ealing Choral Society; Director of Music, St Hilda's College, Oxford; Tutor in Orchestration, Oxford University; Orchestral Director, Nimrod Productions)
 It really was quite an event! The choir had never enjoyed such a large audience before and I’m sure much of that can be explained by the reputation of your great band. Please do pass on my thanks and congratulations to the players. It was a huge thrill for me to finally perform some Rameau with an ensemble that could play it with such style and colour. Let’s do some more! I was hugely impressed with your wind players who had some real pressure moments interspersed with long periods of rest – never easy. And the strings hardly had a break all day, but played with energy and passion and a huge amount of skill and expertise. So thank you once again for all your efforts and enthusiasm. The choir and audience were thrilled to enjoy such a treat on their doorstep and you can be sure that there will be many more such occasions for us to make music together in the future.

 

James Jarvis (Conductor, The Exmoor Singers)
I had a thoroughly enjoyable experience, thanks to the positive and supportive approach of you and the orchestra in making the very best performance and, of course, to their exemplary technical standard. I sincerely hope that a shorter interval will elapse before we can all work together again.


Colin Walsh (Organist & Master of the Choristers, Lincoln Cathedral)
It was all fabulous: thank you. Your abilities to adapt immediately to the individual singers and the chorus were exceptional. We enjoyed having you here and would love to work with you all again.


Timothy Byram-Wigfield (music director, Choir of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle)
I'm sorry that I didn't get a chance to see you after the performance on Saturday to thank you for the work you did in putting the players together and for accompanying so sensitively … I think there were some very good moments indeed, and the players sounded terrific. I do hope that we'll have the chance to work together again on some other project soon.

 

Andrew Reid (Organist & Director, Peterborough Cathedral; conductor, Northampton Bach Choir)
I would like to thank you very much for the performance of Bach's Mass in B minor last November. The band was terrific and very flexible in helping to reach a good and characterful performance.

 

Timothy Noon (Organist & Master of the Choristers, St Davids Cathedral)
Thanks again for a marvellous concert. You and your band were a delight to work with and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. We will definitely book you again.


James Jarvis (conductor, The Exmoor Singers)
More anon, no doubt, but for now just a quick word of appreciation regarding Saturday. The orchestra was great fun to work with and the audience feedback on its performance has been uniformly excellent - please pass on my congratulations and thanks. I was particularly grateful for their highly-professional approach to a time-pressured rehearsal. And well played yourself!


James Wood (conductor, New London Chamber Choir)
Mea culpa … for not having written to thank you for your wonderful collaboration for our twentieth birthday. The two extra pieces you played were ravishing, and as a former cellist/gamba player myself, I was especially knocked out by Susanne’s playing – please pass on my admiration! – but you were all wonderful – thank you!!! I do hope we can do some more – it’s a period of music I’m specially interested in – I have several ideas for future collaborations, so will keep in touch.


John Dunford (conductor, St Oswald Singers Sowersby)
May I thank you and Charivari once more for providing us with such excellent musicianship over the weekend. There have been so many wonderful comments about the playing and the performance as a whole that we can all feel pleased with a job well done.


Richard Crossland (conductor, Lincoln Chorale)
I thought your players were excellent. There is some really tricky stuff in the piece and they dispatched it with virtuosic ease, with a real sparkle where it was needed. It really inspires confidence having such a good continuo group who work together so well and know the piece so well … We will certainly be keen to work with you again.


Richard Crossland (conductor, Lincoln Chorale)
Many thanks for last Saturday. I thought it was a very good show, and I am most grateful for the excellent playing and the spirit and attitude of the orchestra. It makes so much difference when everyone wants to get on, work at it and not get uptight about things. I thought the string ensemble and wind solo playing were absolutely wonderful – and of course yourself. James Bowman seemed very chuffed with the whole thing. Thanks very much – tell them all I think they are great.


Frances Brewitt-Taylor (musical director, Goring Chamber Choir)
The quality of the orchestral playing undoubtedly made the choir feel utterly secure and inspired them to give of their best. You now have many fans among the choir, who are eager to work with your team again!


Richard Stangroom (conductor, St Cecilia Chorus)
I thought the orchestra played beautifully, with some excellent intonation in places where there frequently isn’t and some excellent obbligato playing.


Colin Walsh (Organist & Master of the Choristers, Lincoln Cathedral)
Thanks to you and your outstanding team for a wonderful St John again. You and your professionals are marvellous.


JanJoost van Elburg (musical director, Reading Bach Choir)
I was very impressed with the elegant musicality and the level of musicianship of your playing, so I am very much looking forward to start a good and fruitful relationship between the orchestra and the choir in Reading.


Owen Rees (Organist & Director of Music, The Queen’s College, Oxford; conductor, A Capella Portuguesa)
Many thanks to you for such a fulfilling collaboration, for all your helpfulness and care over the project, and for the exciting musicality which you and the group brought to the occasion. The choir and I very much enjoyed working with Charivari Agreable Simfonie, and I do hope that we can collaborate again. I have long wanted to do a Monteverdi Vespers in that setting, and to give the Queen's singers the chance to do the piece. And I wonder about a Messiah…


Julian Thomas (Director, Norwich Cathedral Consort)
Thank you very much for everything you did to make our B minor Mass such a success on Saturday. It was a great privilege to work with musicians of such calibre and the playing was stylish and responsive throughout. The performance was enhanced enormously by the fact that we were able to use a period-instrument orchestra, and both the soloists and the choir members said how much they appreciated the sensitive and stylish accompaniment. It was a dream combination from my point of view! Not only was everything wonderful musically, but at every stage you were so helpful administratively too and that was a huge help to me as we planned the event. I hope you all had reasonable journeys home that evening. Do please pass on my thanks again to all the players, and I very much hope we will be able to work together again soon. Do let me know when you are next in Norwich as I know a lot of people who will want to come along and hear you!


Michael Smedley (Conductor, Oxford Pro Musica Singers)
A great evening - it was nice to have a full house - I think they actually turned people away. I'll start to think about something for next Summer.


Andrew Fardell (Conductor, The Waltham Singers)
Once again thanks to you and your team for your first-rate work last w/e.  Having musicians familiar with the repertoire and at ease working with each other made my job so much more enjoyable.  Particular thanks to all the soloists who were fantastic and especial thanks to you and Gareth for sympathetic and sensitive recits. Let's do some more soon....

 

James Jarvis (Conductor, The Exmoor Singers)
As ever, the group was a tower of strength.  One of the great joys of working with Charivari (quite apart from the consummate playing, which goes without saying) is your positive, flexible and collaborative approach to the process of making a satisfying performance.  It was a really enjoyable experience and I look forward eagerly to the next one.

Dr Jonathan Williams (Conductor, North Herts Guild of Singers; Director of Music, St Hilda's College, Oxford; Tutor in Orchestration, Oxford University; Orchestral Director, Nimrod Productions)
The choir and I are all delighted with how well it all went and I do hope you enjoyed it too. When I took over the choir last year I convinced the singers to start using pro players and soloists despite this meaning that a big increase in their termly subscriptions to sing in the choir. The results are better than I could have hoped! After last night everyone is delighted to have had the opportunity to take part in such an amazing piece of music performed to such a high standard. I'm sure there will be more such concerts in the future. So thank you for helping me through my first complete Passion with such great playing and enthusiasm - I hope to be able to work with you again very soon.



Stephen Clarke (Conductor, Jubilate!; Director of Music, Radley College)
I was very pleased with the concert, and enjoyed working with the players - you were right - they all knew it so well that the short rehearsal time proved no problem. Yes - I would do it again too!

 

Ryan Wigglesworth (Director of Music, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge)
Thank you so much for organising such a terriffic band; they really were a joy to work with. I'll be in touch again soon re. a Christmas Oratorio!

 

Simon Williams (Conductor, Harrow Choral Society; Director of Music, St George's Hanover Square)
I was delighted with Charivari Agreable and will certainly hope to be able to invite you back to play with us when we next do appropriate repertoire. I'd worked hard with the (large!) choir to get a sense of lift/dance and, on the day, the orchestra helped enormously in this respect. I had been worried that our 160 singers would swamp a period band, but this was not the case at all and the choir relished the fact that, for once, they weren't drowned by the orchestra! The lovely, tranparent quality of the band's sound was just right.

 

Charles Harrison (Suborganist and Assistant Director of Music, Lincoln Cathedral)
It was a great pleasure to work with you and your outstanding orchestra last week. The success of the performance owes much to the professionalism of you and your players, but also to their friendliness, flexibility and readiness to adapt quickly to the peculiarities of Lincoln's large acoustics (not to mention those of the conductor!). The performance was enriched by the relaxed exchange of musical ideas during the rehearsals, and by everyone's readiness to assimilate them so quickly. I am especially grateful to Persephone, who took care of lots of detail that I had missed, and kindly clarified my intentions to the band when I was unclear; also to the continuo team, for offering realisations of such colour, character and tightness.
Members of the audience have singled out the fine ensemble and polish for particular praise; that we managed this with such a short rehearsal period is something we can be rightly proud of! So, thank you all for such an enjoyable experience. I felt wonderfully well supported by a team which was as determined as I to deliver a fine performance, and we achieved it with the minimum of rehearsal, and without a single tense moment. The players were always responsive when I was clear, and always ready to compensate for my inexperience when I was not.

 

Robert Sharpe (Organist & Master of the Choristers, Truro Cathedral)
I was of course absolutely delighted with Charivari. The stylish playing of the Simfonie was at the centre of the success of the Monteverdi Vespers in Truro. Not only was it one of the most memorable concerts for the Three Spires Singers, it has also resulted in a large influx of new members under the age of 25. This means that Three Spires Singers is now evenly spaced in terms of the age of its membership; something we are very proud of. Thanks so much for being such a lovely group to work with. We shall certainly be trying to book you again in the future.

Bob Ryan (Treasurer, Ilkley Concert Club)
You gave the club a most interesting and enjoyable evening.

 

John Booth (Hon. Treasurer, Luton MusicClub)
Thank you for the delightful concert which was enjoyed by every one.