I’ve recently been to a couple of enjoyable short concerts where I knew the performers. In Manvers Street Baptist Church, I heard Sara Foster work her way through the year with ‘A Song for All Seasons’, accompanied by Colin Hunt. Then I heard Kingswood School’s choirs sing in St Stephen’s Lansdown. Well done to all performers.
Both churches are handsome ones, with interesting memorial tablets commemorating such people as missionaries executed in China and a sailor whose ship never reached port and who lies in ‘unknown waters’. I think I prefer the Baptist church as a concert venue. They have a regular Thursday lunchtime concert series with a collection for a charity at the end. Sara and Colin performed alongside a large collection of crocheted and appliquéd owls which were something to do with the church’s harvest festival.
At St Stephen’s I was obliged to find a seat in the gallery (just at the west end, not on three sides as in St Swithin’s or Christ Church). This was not the short straw, as I think the acoustic there is better than downstairs. Although you still have the problem of nearby conversation sounding louder than it should, it is not nearly as loud as it sounds in the body of the church. And the conductor could talk easily to us in the gallery without amplification – but perhaps that is because he is a teacher.