Review: I Have A Dream memory re-created in climactic music

For many in the audience at Holy Trinity church, John F Kennedy’s death in 1963 and Dr Martin Luther King’s remarkable address, I Have a Dream - also in 1963, are two of the most vivid memories of our early years. Most of us remember where we were on those days.

Composer Max Taylor has recreated the memory of the King speech with his 40-minute choral piece, using the script to guide the choral groups through the messages. Selwyn Calvin, headteacher at Barr’s Hill School, Coventry, led the readings with distinction and encouraged the choir to build from the tentative beginnings to a grand climax.

Taylor cleverly mixes elements of Dvorak’s New World Symphony and Handel’s Messiah with the spirituals and religious folk-songs of the Deep South of the US. Spires Chorus overcame the tentative beginnings to build to the desired climax; however, an additional rehearsal with the orchestra would have helped the outcome.

Spires Youth took over post interval with sparkling performances of Smetana’s Vltava, Moussorgsky’s The Great Gate of Kiev and Holst’s Mars, with the discovery of a French horn player of note – Caroline Weiner, a name to watch in the future.

Clive Peacock