Colwyn Choral Society / Cymdeithas Gorawl Colwyn
Message from our Conductor
It is a great privilege for me to be the conductor of Colwyn Choral Society in its 50th anniversary year. Since being involved with the choir over a number of years in various guises, I have enjoyed a very varied and stimulating relationship with the choir, accompanying (both as an organist playing orchestral reductions and as a continuo player), more recently conducting and once singing amongst the basses (Brahms’ Requiem). I look forward hugely to celebrating this year with you, whether you are a member of the choir or audience.
Over the last couple of years we have extended our boundaries even further by singing highly challenging music by Respighi, Bernstein, Duruflé, and living composers Patrick Larley, John Rutter and of course David Fanshawe. David’s African Sanctus was certainly a shock to the system and challenged us all on different levels, but in the end I think everyone gained much from this exciting and colourful work.
We have not neglected some of the more traditional masterworks - Haydn’s Nelson Mass and Handel’s Coronation Anthems have featured on the menu. Tonight, we are again very much on traditional ground, presenting Bach’s St John Passion with a wonderful line up of soloists and with the top players of the North Wales Philharmonia. How appropriate that we are able to sing this in church on the eve of Passion Sunday as a spiritual preparation for the fortnight leading up to Easter but also as a remarkable piece of composition in its own right. Rather shorter than the St Matthew setting and single rather than double choir, it is still one of the very greatest choral works of all time and the choir and I have tremendously enjoyed the preparation for this evening’s performance.
A new venture for us is a partnership with Eirias High School on Tuesday 31 March where we will jointly be performing Rutter’s Feel the Spirit, which is now firmly established in the choir’s repertoire. We hope this collaboration will be enjoyable and inspiring for the younger and older participants alike.
On Saturday 6 June at St John’s Methodist Church in Llandudno, we will be again singing in aid of St David’s Hospice and this will be a concert featuring as its centrepiece Captain Noah’s Floating Zoo by Joseph Horowitz. It is certainly great fun and we hope to have a full house to do our best for this most worthy cause.
For those who like music on a grand scale, then Saturday 5 December is the date to put in your diary as we are presenting the magnificent setting of that great hymn of praise ‘Te Deum’ by Hector Berlioz. This was first performed in the church of Saint Eustache in Paris which is a building of Cathedral like proportions, suiting the music perfectly. It will be a very rare opportunity in this area to hear a live performance of this work – there are some great recordings of it, but they can never replace a performance of the moment given with local singers and players.
Colwyn Choral Society looks forward to the next fifty years of music making and we look forward to the future concerts eagerly.
Graham Eccles
3rd February 2009