St John’s Smith Square along with Cadogan Hall in Sloane Square (which is a venue I hope Libera might consider in the future) always offer up a fantastic selection of concerts throughout the year, but especially at Christmas time. Christ Church Cathedral Choir and the Choir of New College Oxford regularly sing at SJSS for Christmas (and this year is no different, the 10th and 16th Dec respectively). I was becoming a little bit disillusioned with Libera lately due to their focus on their overseas markets compared to their home audience. But one amazing Christmas concert later and my faith in them is restored.Yorkie wrote: ↑<span title="Wed Dec 04, 2019 9:15 pm">5 years ago</span> The venue was impressive. St John’s Smith Square is renowned for staging top quality classical music; all the big choirs perform here as well as anybody who is anybody in the British classical music scene. It is just down the road from the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey – this is bang in the centre of well healed British culture. We were long overdue a Libera concert here. Given the prestigiousness of the venue it was only fitting that Mr Prizeman took his place to applause from audience.
The sound was excellent. With the musicians at the back of the stage (and can I say that despite what I’m sure is a substantial cost those musicians really compliment the boys) it was a nicely balanced sound. Sometimes, especially if you are seated on the edge of the audience, the musicians can be a little too forwards, competing with the voices. Not last night where the staging placed them at the back of the stage behind the boys and from my seat it meant I could always here the individual voices.
I'll echo again what I said earlier about sound balance being spot on with the musicians at the back, but I'll add that in terms of sound quality it was also excellent, perhaps because it's a smaller venue than normal so there was less space to fill but they had everything set just right for me, which hasn't always been the case at some of the concerts I've attended.
maartendas wrote: ↑<span title="Wed Dec 04, 2019 10:22 pm">5 years ago</span> Last night’s concert will go down as one of Libera’s best. A bunch of us tried to name any highlights but we couldn’t. The entire concert was a highlight! Usually there are a couple of songs that were a little less excellent than the rest, but last night I couldn’t name any. So this feels more like a review of a single experience, rather than different songs.
Speeches
Normally I don’t write about the speeches, I think because they don’t form part of the emotional and spiritual experiences during a Libera concert, but I would like to make an exception for Daniel. He had two speeches that were new for this concert and which he performed with an eager cheekiness. One was about the fact that the concert took place on a school day and some of the boys had been up since 6 am – at which he made a face as if to say: can you believe it, that’s unbearable! The other new speech talked about the history of Walking in the Air, and Daniel mentioned Aled Jones as one of the boy singers who made this song famous. He then went on to remark that Aled probably won’t be able to hit those high notes as well as he used to, which caused a good deal of laughter from the audience. Cheeky!
My two favourite concerts of the last five years are this one and Brighton, and SJSS might just edge it due to the fact I didn't have to travel far!
Daniel was excellent in the speeches, I loved his humour and delivery!
I'm sure the Bognor Regis Tourist board would be horrified by your comment! 
