18th December 2023
Bardi Wind Orchestra’s annual Christmas Festival was a big success at the weekend!
Holy Trinity Leicester, was beautifully dressed in a great array of Christmas Trees and lights, and made a wonderful setting for the concert. Once Conductor David Calow’s baton was raised for the title piece, Leroy Anderson’s evergreen ‘A Christmas Festival’, and the BWO sounded the first chords, the audience (many of who have been coming since the series started over 20 years ago) knew that Christmas 2023 was underway.
A programme of seasonal favourites, serious and more light-hearted, followed. These were interspersed with readings by Leicester’s own John Florance. Amongst other items, John read the perennial favourite ‘Christmas at Lewis’s’ and John Betjeman’s 1954 poem ‘Christmas’. He confessed to the audience that he once left the poem out of a BWO Christmas programme and was told in no uncertain terms by audience members afterwards that he should not do that again.
In a colourful array of Christmas outfits for the second half the BWO players ended by commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the 1973 Slade Christmas hit ‘Merry Christmas Everybody’ which had the audience singing lustily with some enthusiastically waving arms in the air.
Merry Christmas all from the Bardi!
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