Saturday 3 May 2003
Queen Elizabeth Hall, South Bank Centre, London SE1
The Twits Anne Collis
Hums of Winnie-the-Pooh Kevin Jones
Thames Philharmonic Choir
St Paul's Junior School Choir, Kingston upon Thames
Thames Festival Orchestra

London's Queen Elizabeth Hall was packed to capacity on Saturday 3 May for a most unusual event organised by the Thames Philharmonic Choir. Billed as "A Concert for Children - of All Ages!" it took the form of narrated musical presentations of characters from two favourite children's stories. In the first half, a group of six songs by Kevin Jones, entitled "Sing Ho! for the life of a Bear", consisted of settings of some of the "Hums" of the legendary Winnie-the-Pooh. After the interval, the enthusiastically responsive audience were treated to Anne Collis's musical based on Roald Dahl's "The Twits". Henry Kelly of Classic FM fame narrated the stories and the concert was compered, directed and conducted by the Choir's Artistic Director, John Bate.

Kevin Jones, Professor of Music at Kingston University, combines a highly esoteric research interest in the field of computer-generated music with a considerable gift for writing tuneful and immediately accessible vocal works. "Sing Ho!" showed him as a miniaturist capable of capturing with uncanny precision the spirit and humour of the most famous bear in the world.

In the second half of the programme "The Twits" provided a feast of colour and variety. As Mr and Mrs Twit, Michael Bundy and Heather Shipp, familiar to many audiences in serious dramatic oratorio and operatic roles, surpassed themselves in the vocal characterisation of two of the most revolting creations of even Roald Dahl's strange imagination, with only the minimum of help by way of costume, action and props. In the later stages of the story, composer Anne Collis and lyricist Justin Connoley completed a gallery of sharp characterisations by presenting the Roly Poly Bird as a rock singer, portrayed with great humour by Elvis Presley look-alike Michael Sterling, veteran of West End musicals.

Along the way the other characters were brought to life with enormous verve and competence by members of the St Paul's Singers, a school choir from Kingston-upon-Thames who provided both a secondary choral resource, and also gave us the Frog, the Mugglewump monkeys and the Stuck Boys as well as the Roly Poly Bird's vocal backing group the Blue Tits. Beautifully presented in a variety of appropriate costumes, these 10- and 11-year-olds also produced a repertoire body movements, action and vocal characterisation when required and great credit is due to their wonderful teacher Alison Renvoize.

Behind all this, Thames Philharmonic Choir, which is based in the Richmond-Putney-Kingston area, maintained their high reputation in singing of the quality that has come to be expected of them. In front, the whole proceedings were directed with his usual combination of calm efficiency and infectious enthusiasm by conductor John Bate.

Bravo - a truly spectacular event!

R. Beeson, Richmond and Twickenham Times, 9 May 2003