Christmas? Yes! - But that's not all...!
Christmas? Yes! – But that's not all...!
This report includes a video of Geraint Davies introducing and then singing the famous Welsh song "Myfanwy". This is best viewed as Full Screen or in a new Tab/Window.
Thanks to Jona Davies for providing the video.
Storm Darragh was about to do its worst, but a bit of rough weather was not going to prevent hardy Audlemites and other brave souls from far and near from scaling the steep incline up to the West Door of St James' Church to enjoy our Winter Concert on 6 December.
Bea Schouten, Chair of Audlem Voices, started proceedings by welcoming everyone and introducing Jenny Collis-Smith, our indefatigable Musical Director and founder, and Naomi Newman, our faithful accompanist.
Ding Dong Merrily on High, with full audience participation, set a properly merry mood and gave us all a great warm up. Other community carols were interspersed among our set pieces – this gave the audience a very welcome chance to rise from the hard wooden pews for a few minutes relief while they sang their hearts out!
Our first piece – The Lord is My Shepherd composed by Howard Goodall – is familiar to most people as the theme tune from The Vicar of Dibley, that light-hearted take on the trials and joys of 'vicaring'. As a choral piece, it is a beautiful and moving meditation on the unfathomable unbreakable connection that exists between the soul and God.
Then came Still, Still, Still, a traditional German carol translated and arranged by Andrew Gant. It is a perfect musical rendering of 'the peace of Christmas' – as was clearly acknowledged by the hush that followed the last notes.
Christina Rossetti's famous Christmas poem 'In the bleak midwinter' has been set to music by many people, and on this night we sang two different versions. The first, titled Mid-Winter, is by popular contemporary composer Bob Chilcott and is full of wonderful bell-like notes that beautifully evoke the sparkle of stars on a clear frosty night.
We left Christmas behind briefly to sing the beautiful Medley from Les Misérables, the world-famous musical based on French author Victor Hugo's 19th century novel, which we had not presented before.
The high tragedy, powerful romance, and positive vision of the bright future that is possible if we are prepared to fight for it that lie at the heart of this musical clearly resonated with our audience, several of whom were seen to be in tears. We take this as a major compliment.
As regular followers of our choir know, Jenny is a dedicated fan of John Rutter and will include music by him whenever humanly possible. So now we turned to his arrangement of the beautiful traditional Cornish Sans Day Carol. This is similar in concept to the more familiar The Holly and the Ivy but hasn't any sun rising or deer running about!
The next piece brought a warm Caribbean feel with the familiar calypso Mary's Boy Child by Jester Hairston, delightfully re-arranged for four voices by Graham Jordan Ellis. It is such fun, especially the unaccompanied middle section where Mary and Joseph 'find a little nook' and the final section where 'trumpets sound and angels sing'!
INTERVAL – Here came a welcome 20-minute break where we all enjoyed nibbles and wine and admired the wonderful raffle prizes, and, of course, mingled with our lovely audience.
Refreshed and restored, we again departed temporarily from Christmas with something very unusual for us. Geraint Davies, who is a Welsh speaker, introduced the famous Welsh song Myfanwy, relaying its moving story of a fading relationship.
The beautiful Myfanwy has turned cool, and her lover wonders what has gone wrong. Eventually he accepts that she must be allowed to go free. He asks only to hold her hand one last time as they say farewell.
Geraint sang the first verse solo in his fine powerful voice, the choir hummed harmonies during the second verse, and finally we all joined in (in Welsh!) to sing the last mournful farewell.
In the Bleak Midwinter by Robert Walker, composed in 1973, the second version of Christina Rossetti's poem that we sang, was quite a contrast to the first, with complex interwoven melodies and echoing and re-echoing phrases.
John Rutter's soaring arrangement of Adolphe Adam's wonderful Christmas hymn O Holy Night regularly features as a top Christmas favourite in public polls, and it's one of our favourites too. It's impossible not to feel uplifted when you sing it or hear it!
All I Want for Christmas, by Mariah Carey and Walter Afanasieff, arranged by Matthew O'Donovan, evoked a completely different but equally joyous Christmas feel. The audience would have been dancing if only the pews hadn't been so tightly packed.
As the evening drew to a close, the audience joined us one last time with O come all ye faithful and we finished up with a jolly, tipsy and rather raucous version of the traditional We Wish You a Merry Christmas arranged by Ralph Allwood. Sadly, nobody brought us any figgy pudding!
Well-deserved bouquets were presented to Jenny and to Naomi, our accompanist, and all the soloists who featured in the medley were separately applauded. With one accord, choir and audience rated it a fabulous concert!
Thanks to Simon Schouten for the photos!
KF for Audlem Voices