What an amazing night! It was held in All Saints Church, Oystermouth, which was packed to the rafters, with extra chairs being put out to accommodate the audience. We had 50 choristers on stage, the biggest choir the Gwalia Singers has ever assembled. However, it all started on a disappointing note when our compere, Kevin Johns, had to pull out at short notice due to illness, but our new president, Geoff Wheel, stepped into the breach and did a great job.
We opened with ‘Let All Men Sing’ and then sang the beautiful ‘Sanctus’ by Schubert. Our first section ended with ‘An American Trilogy’ which featured Rhian on the piano and Steve on the organ, and gained rapturous applause. The first soloist for the evening was Jonathan Lycett who is well known in Swansea for taking leading roles in many musical productions. He started with ‘Secret Love’ from ‘Calamity Jane’ and finished with the ‘Anthem’ from ‘Chess’ by Andersson and Ulvaeus. Next up was Osian Dafydd, a talented young violinist, who won the under 19 string instrumental competition at the National Urdd Eisteddfod in 2010. He played the very technical ‘Zigeunerweisen’ by Sarasate.
Before our final section of the first half, we made a number of presentations. Our chairman, Des Criddle, paid tribute to 3 members of the choir, Vernon Simons, Mal Herbert and Terry Osbourne, who have given outstanding service to the choir.
Vernon, Mal and Terry receiving presentations from Geoff Wheel
We then sang 3 Welsh items Llanfair, Ar Hyd y Nos, and Cwm Rhondda to end the first half. The last piece again featured Rhian and Steve in partnership with the choir.
We started the 2nd half with ‘Seize The Day’ from Disney’s ‘Newsies’ and followed this with Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’. Then came Robbie Williams’ ‘Angels’ and we finished with an ‘a capella’ version of Billy Joel’s ‘The Longest Time’. This features 6 members of the choir singing the solo part backed by the rest of the choir. Our next soloist was cellist, Saran Davies, who won the regional Texaco Rotary Club competition in 2011. She played ‘Rondo’ by Boccherini and ‘Jewish Song’ by Bloch, and was then joined by Osian to play ‘Passacaglia’ by Handel von Johan Halvorsen. This is a very difficult and technical piece which they pulled off brilliantly. Both were accompanied by Dr Jonathan Morgan.
Jonathan then sang his final section which ended with the very moving ‘This Is The Moment’ from the musical Jeckyll and Hyde. He was accompanied through the evening by Chris Pike. Our final section continued the musical theme when we sung the beautiful ‘Bring Him Home’ from Les Miserables and our final item was ‘Sinatra’, a medley of songs starting and finishing with ‘New York, New York’ arranged by Alan Simmons. A prolonged applause followed, which showed the audience’s appreciation for a wonderful concert. Presentations to the guest artistes followed and the evening ended with the Welsh National Anthem.
Many thanks must go to Nick, our MD, for all his hard work, and to our accompanists Rhian and Steve.
A selection of photos from the night are available to view in the gallery.
