Spring Concert in Solva, 23rd April 2011
The ladies finding their places
Haverfordwest Ladies Choir gave a successful and well-attended concert at Solva Memorial Hall on Saturday, 23rd April, in aid of Shalom House.
The choir's conductor Nancy Mann had devised a programme which moved seamlessly from the formal to the bright and breezy. The opening set included some newer parts of the choir's repertoire, like 'How can I keep from singing?' by the American Baptist minister Robert Lowry. The set before the interval stayed for the moment within the academy, giving us two parodic nursery rhymes and two of John Rutter's madrigal settings of Shakespearean lyrics, appropriately enough, on the Bard's birthday. Then, in the second half, the choir moved to the warmth and lyricism of Chilcott's 'Irish blessing' and Meurig Hughes' arrangement of the Welsh folk song, 'Suo-gan'. Two of Aaron Copland's Old American Songs sustained the mood before, in the finale, just before the concluding rendering of Cy Coleman's 'Big spender', the choir gave a moving performance of Paul Simon's 'Bridge over troubled water', finely augmented by Gerald Nicholas's strong and flowing accompaniment.
The three main soloists greatly extended the character and variety of the evening.
We heard Elizabeth Thomas's fine mezzo-soprano voice taking the lead in the opening number, 'This is the day', and giving us Edward Elgar's setting of Garnett's 'Where corals lie'.
Robert Mann gave a very crisp, firm performance of a piece by Shostakovich.
The third soloist, Iwo Zaluski, is the great-great-great-grandson of Prince Michal Kleofas Oginski, one of Polish music's great exponents in the years before Chopin. Iwo offered a delightful and beautifully-executed combination of piano-playing and exposition, as he described his antecedent's career and played several instances of the his works with the mazurka and polonaise, to show the audience that the Polish pianistic tradition, too readily stereotyped as a rather melancholy one, has so much of joyfulness and dance. His second set was devoted to his own arrangement of the one surviving piece of Oginski's grand-daughter Amelia Zaluska. Iwo's variations in a way continued the theme of parody from 'Sing a song of sixpence' earlier, since he moved through styles as various as those of Beethoven, George Gershwin and Paraguayan flute music.
Elizabeth Thomas |
Robert Mann |
Iwo Zaluski |
Other soloists continued the choir's pleasing tradition of using its own members to perform various leads and verses within choir numbers. Jacqueline Williams led in 'How can I keep from singing?' and Carol Mayhew took the solo part in 'Suo-gan'. In the second half, Carol supported Stephanie Dewick's alto lead in a new piece to the repertoire, Amanda McBroom's 'The rose'.
Robert Nisbet
Stop Press! We are happy to say that the concert raised £325 for Shalom House, St Davids.
