Скачать или смотреть Compton Heights Band's 2003, Part 1 of 4 Holiday Pops (Sacred)

Compton Heights Concert Band
“Holidays Pops Spectacular 2003”
Recorded LIVE at Powell Hall
Part 1 of 4
For Wonderful Wednesdays Posting on YouTube 11/3/2021


This week’s Wonderful Wednesdays is “sui generis”, defined as “of one’s own kind, peculiar,” often used in legal circles. Here it is going to be 4 shows and 4 “Wonderful Wednesdays” weeks created by the Compton Heights Concert Band’s Holiday Spectacular of 2003 at Powell Symphony Hall, starring “Tenor of the World”, Hugh Smith, David Morris, World’s Top Whistler, The Missouri Choral Society and the one and only organist, St. Louis’ Stan Kann!

Part 1 (Week 1) is dubbed Disc 1 Sacred. Opening with the majestic and inspirational “Lead On, O King Eternal” an arrangement by James Swearingen of this famous hymn that is guaranteed to send chills up and down your spine! Led by the singing of Hugh Smith and guest chorus The Missouri Choral Society backed by the Compton Heights Concert Band an extra touch is antiphonal brass. Watch for famed Plein Air painter, BillyO, who was to give the painting he was creating to the winner of a drawing for it!

Next, is Leroy Anderson’s joyful “Sleigh Ride” which is the Band’s Music Director and Conductor Edward Dolbashian’s favorite holiday tune. On occasion in the same concert, he has even repeated it! Big applause from the audience indicates the popularity of this classic Christmas tune.

The Band continues the show with its rendition of “Fanfare Prelude on Joy to the World” by James Curnow, a famed composer, arranger for concert bands, brass bands, vocal and instrumental solos and ensembles.

Tenor Hugh Smith returns to center stage for another Holiday classic, “Gesu Bambino” by Pietro A. Yon, an Italian born organist and composer who made his career in the U.S.

The Band follows Gesu Bambino with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Pie Jesu,” a favorite of tenors, here with both Hugh Smith and David Morris, the World’s Top Whistler, collaborating with some solo work by each and duet sections. Huge audience applause and a well-deserved bow for David Morris.

Morris stays on stage for “Christmas Swing-along” which features three swing-along holiday tunes: “Winter Wonderland,” “All I Want for Christmas”, and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is the standout which is not surprising, based on the popularity and joy of this holiday season! Overall, the swing-along was a big hit with the large audience and its response.

Hugh Smith, tenor, returns for another all-time Christmas favorite, Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas”. “White Christmas” is an Irving Berlin song reminiscing about an old-fashioned Christmas setting he wrote for the musical film “Holiday Inn”. One story claims he wrote it in 1940 in warm La Quinta California. In his time, with 50 million copies sold, Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” was not only the best-selling Christmas/holiday single in the United States, but also the best-selling single of all time, according to Guinness World records.

For the Compton Heights Concert Band, Hugh Smith, Tenor, and the big chorus it was a fabulous piece closing out Part 1 (Week #1) in an upbeat, joyous holiday spirit!

You won’t want to miss the rest of the sacred music in Part 2 (Week #2) of next week’s Wonderful Wednesdays, November 10th.

By: Harry F. Swanger, President/Founder
Compton Heights Concert Band of St. Louis