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Re: London Concert - 2nd December 2106

Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2016 6:43 pm
by filiarheni
Here are a few of my impressions of the London concert which was the second Libera concert for me.

To sum it up already at the beginning: This concert was one whole dream for me! Already while it took place, I was thinking: Is there a form of "comparative degree" to "addicted"? Twice as addicted as before or so? Since that day I have to answer this question with a yes. It was a really wonderful concert. I liked it better than the - also very good - concert in Vallendar. One big reason were the different outer factors: Libera in front of this background, practically framed by the arches, the cathedral atmosphere, the blue illumination in the church and the lighting. These are simply the right conditions for Libera. And their singing was brilliant! The soloists were different in quality, some very good, some less, but the choir as a whole was outstanding!

I was lucky once again and could "upgrade" to row C. So I had a very good sound and I could see the boys well and also a large screen on the side, which provided some support, if you wanted to see someone and the look on his face more distinctly. However, when I was searching for the current soloist, it did not always help ... the camera sometimes was as helpless as I was and filmed somewhere else. :? But as we know, Libera has fun leaving room to us for some speculation. :wink:

I liked Angele Dei very much. It’s a song which I consider as typically Libera. I assume that it has made the leap to the new CD – hopefully.

Only some general words to Carol Of The Bells: I love this song, and here again the Libera version is my favourite. It gives me goosebumps, and most of all at one point shortly before the end, where there is an increase in the melody ("from everywhere filling the air"). Every time I hear this it gives me so much energy, such an excitement there! But .. in this song the extremely rare (!) case occurs that I do not agree with Robert Prizeman: He built in Gloria calls, and they do sound beautiful and I do like the end of the second one that makes the music more and more excited, but all in all, in my opinion they slow down the music too abruptly. I’d rather have them in another song. Robert must have had a reason; I wish I could ask him about it. Anyway, this stays one of my favourite Christmas songs, and I was very happy to hear it in the concert. It was excellent.

I like being surprised in a concert and allowed myself only a short glance at the programme so that I only knew about the first three, four songs of both concert halves. I didn't know anything about the rest and didn’t even think about what we were going to hear. So I was ready for everything. For almost everything.
The choir sang a note. Then the second, and I thought: What?? Hearing the third note, I finally became conscious: Yes. It's true! And after that I was still stunned with amazement for several seconds: They were actually singing my all-time-dearest-highest favourite! I was not prepared in any way that they would sing Voca Me on that evening. Really, I never thought they would bring a Lacrymosa/dolorosa song into a Christmas concert. But maybe I am wrong and advent is the time when you go through darkness hoping for the light, so it would be justified and right. Whatsoever, I was completely surprised by hearing my everlasting wish - and after I had considered it as one of the weakest songs in Vallendar, I must say that this time it was great! The soloist of the vocalises needs some more training, ok. But these two passages are only a small part of the song; when we leave this aside, it was really good today! Very well sung, the buildup of tension and dynamics absolutely coherent. The gentle Lacrymosa-dolorosa bits, which I also love so very, very much, were so beautiful! And then when the "showdown" came, there was nothing of a sudden step as in Vallendar, but exactly the evenness in the increasing tension that gives the song its effect and captivates me so strongly. THANK YOU, Robert, for this marvellous surprise!

Angels From On High (Angels We Have Heard On High) is a high favourite Christmas song of mine, because it is so cheerful. For me it is the embodiment of joyful Christmas (off-topic: The Gloria part is, according to my experience, an ideal singing warm-up exercise; after that the voice is smooth as if it was “oiled”). Robert’s arrangement crowns the song, especially introduction and coda. So full of joy, so jubilating, so happy!

I did not really want to have In dulci jubilo in the concert. I've been tired of the song for a long time, because it's always being sung in all Christmas worship services with a handful of other recurring songs, as if there were only six Christmas songs in this world. But then the Libera London concert came – and I did enjoy this song! It is a joyful song, it does not have to be sung slowly and solemnly, merely because it is a Christmas song, as we sing it in Germany. The interpretation should correspond to the text, and that was exactly my impression in the concert. I've never heard it as beautiful as this before!

Regarding Total Praise, something very strange happened to me: After the concert I was not able to remember anything of it and had to listen to it again on Youtube. :oops: And even after that I only remembered the "Amen". Somehow, it rushed by myself during the concert.

I remember Alex Montoro as the main soloist of the evening. He reminded me of Alessandro in Vallendar. I cannot find the right English word to describe it, but you probably understand what I mean saying: a well-balanced, confident and calm manner of standing there and singing, which I can only admire!
I'm very curious in what way he will go on. I am also quite curious about the future of someone else: Certainly, there hasn’t been anybody in the audience who wouldn’t call that little soloist at the end of Carol Of The Bells sooo cute. He seemed to be very scared. While he was standing there waiting for his solo, I could see tremendous concentration and fear - he looked so sweet with that and then he sang the solo part really fine! I also see the parallel between him and Isaac with his first solo as a short ending of a song (Himig ng pasko). Maybe the start of a soloistic period?

I like Camden's voice and especially noticed that he seems to sing with no effort at all. Very well done!

One bitter pill at this concert was the small solo part of Alessandro, reduced to the absolute minimum. I had looked forward to him so much after I heard him in Vallendar. Sadly, I got to know Libera too late to hear and see him sing more solos.

The Miniboys:
I sat on the left side and had four miniboys before me. On the other side, I could only see the boy at the left end of the row, and without knowing his name, it was naturally clear that this had to be Sam Wiggin's brother because they resemble each other extremely. His name is Victor, and unlike all the other mini-boys who were visible to me, he was relaxed, smiled a lot and indeed seemed to enjoy the concert. And I had fun watching the miniboys on my side. I'm still not too familiar with the names, so I use the information fan_de_LoK posted.
On the left there stood Joe. He had an almost stoic expression all along, as if he was thinking, okay, I have to do this concert now, but it is also okay as soon as it is over. Number 2 had always something to look at, everything was so interesting! I could not see number 3 very often, since there was someone sitting in front of me. But he did something as well. Number 4 was Koji, Taichi's brother, and he was completely fixated on Robert. Face rather forward, eyes always strictly directed to the left, looking very concentrated after Robert's conducting. Each choir conductor would bathe in heavenly joy, if he had a choir consisting only of Kojis. :lol:
I was not able to see it, but I guess, my four boys also had a monitor. Towards the end of the concert something very interesting must have happened there, because suddenly they could hardly turn away their eyes from there. And very sweet and funny was something with the lighting towards the end; I don't remember what it was, but they had to look and look and look again what was happening above their heads.

There is only one point of criticism that I have, but it concerns the audience: Sometimes (not only with Libera) I have the feeling that there is a contest, who will be the first to clap. If it is a quick, exciting song, I'm not saying anything against it. You feel the music, and that ends up in the following applause. But here it happened with the quiet pieces all the time. This cuts the atmosphere. Inside I pleaded: Dear audience, do have the calm that lies in the music. Allow the musical effect to continue for one moment in stillness, two or three seconds, before coming to again. After that it is not too late to give them their deserved applause. Instantly clapping isn't an indicator how good it was and how much you liked it. This can be shown by other means, loud or very long clapping. Please let the song and the atmosphere that it brings come to an end, just breathe once and then clap, you do not deprive Libera of anything. The annoying "highlight" was when someone actually began to clap into the reverberation of the last note of a soloist, thus simply cutting off the soloist and the song.

And one more point: I would have liked it better if the applause had only ended as soon as the last boy had left the stage so that none of them would have had to leave without it. This was not the case, so I think we can still work on us.

But as for all performers, it was wonderful!

The programme order was well made and besides, it is interesting that there was no Christmas and non-Christmas blocks, but that it was quite mixed. I like that because love the variety, the changing in concerts and don’t need blocks. Actually, it is common that there are blocks, and therefore I was happy that the way the programme order was arranged correlated so well with what I like. :)

After the concert, I enjoyed talking with Josh for a moment. He was pleased that I find Secret so beautiful, we agreed on this, and he said that it should be included again in the programme. So I asked him for some support - because this is exactly what I want, too. So, please, Josh: You have a job now ... :)

For me, it was a concert where everything matched. :D The mood in the cathedral was joyous, also festive, and the music was made to lay myself in, music all around me and inside myself. The concert as a whole was just incredible. I enjoyed it from the very beginning until the very end. Afterwords, I went home in best temper and I will try to keep the memory as long as possible.

Appendix:
If you stay in London until Sunday, you should not miss the opportunity to attend a church service at St. Philip's, where guess who is singing! :wink:
It was a nice part as well as a perfect completion of this trip to London to be able to see and hear the boys a second time and this time in their "home". They had to sing a lot, more than I had dared to hope, fine! One of the songs for the parish to sing was "O Come, Emmanuel", and I was secretly delighted to hear a song, which I only learned through Libera, and sing it together with them. But only the refrains. I wanted to leave the verses to them, I wanted to listen to them singing this song also.
St. Philip's is a friendly, pretty church, I felt very comfortable there.

Small gag at the end: While I was waiting for the boarding to London at gate xy at Cologne airport, there was an announcement: "The passengers Isaac are asked to come to gate xy." After a second request, they arrived – lots of luck, because otherwise someone might have been missing ... :mrgreen:

Two of two concerts were great! I'm very satisfied. :D

Re: London Concert - 2nd December 2106

Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2016 7:01 pm
by Yorkie
Thanks for your review Filiarheni, glad you enjoyed the trip to London - hope we will see you again at some more UK concerts. I know what you mean about premature applause :wink:

Re: London Concert - 2nd December 2106

Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2017 5:10 am
by gingerthedog1
JimmyRiddle wrote:Thanks for the comprehensive reviews, they are very much appreciated by all. Quite a lot of changes and new faces to get up to scratch with, it could take some time :) Nice that Libera could facilitate a M&G at a UK concert again. I expect it could only happen on a Friday/Saturday night concert during term time, and that's after everything else is in place.
Yorkie wrote:Carol of the Bells had solo parts by Gabe & Alex G but it was little Romeo that stole the show with his reprise of the Cassius ending!
I wonder if that puts mini-boy Romeo in the running for the youngest member to have a concert solo part after Isaac's 'Happy Christmas to You' solo at the end of Himig Ng Pasko aged 8yrs 9mths? I guess we'll never know unless the ages are revealed. #libstats

Looking forward to any video's that might emerge and curious about the 360 filming. Roll on to the new album next year.
About Romeo, George from this blog
http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... IE-SearchB
says Romeo is 7 years old. But of course, we don't know if that is true. I think it unlikely since he was present at St George's last year. If he were 7 this year, his first concert appearance would be at age 6 which seems very early.
(Sorry, haven't figured out how to link URL's yet.)

Re: London Concert - 2nd December 2106

Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2017 8:37 pm
by JimmyRiddle
More photo's of Libera's Southwark concert have been shared by OfficialLibera

They have further commented that 360 Video's from the concert will be coming soon.

Libera have come a long way from their embryonic concerts back in 2007.

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Re: London Concert - 2nd December 2016

Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2017 5:38 pm
by andmar
Sadly there are still no signs of the announced 360 video from the St. Georges concert :(.