Music that echoed, imitated and celebrated birdsong was the inspiration for the Sinfonia of Cambridge’s winter concert on 26 January 2020 at West Road Concert Hall. The young violinist Emma Lisney played the solo part in Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending and Song of the Birds, a Catalan folk song arranged by the orchestra’s musical director, Howard Williams, for which the St John’s Senior House Chamber Choir and the Form 3 and 4 Choir joined the soloist and orchestra.
This was the third time our choirs have sung with the Sinfonia of Cambridge at the West Road Concert Hall. Director of Music, Mr Simon Kirk, explained, "The children found just the right lyrical and melancholic mood and performed beautifully in the Catalan folk song". The Song of the Birds, made famous by the cellist Pablo Casals, is often sung as a Christmas carol, and arranged here for choir, violin and small orchestra. Song of the Birds (El Cant des Ocells) is a traditional Catalan song which tells of how the eagle, sparrow, greenfinch, siskin and the lark come to serenade the Christ Child in the Manger.
