Christmas Concert at St John the Baptist
This year's Christmas concert was held on Saturday 6th December at 7.30pm in St John the Baptist Church, Risca Road, Newport NP20 4LP. This is the venue where our Christmas and Spring concerts have been taking place in the past few years.
The headline music this Christmas was Antonio Vivaldi's much loved Gloria. This work resonated joyfully around the St John's acoustic. The choir was accompanied very capably by strings, brass and woodwind from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. The soloists were Victoria Illsley (sop), Hannah Williams (sop), Rhian Humphreys (alto). We unfortunately do not have a photo of Rhian to post here but all three soloists sang beautifully. Thank you to all.
Accompanied by instrumentalists from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.
Gloria was followed by Philip Stopford's twenty-first century version of the Coventry Carol, Lully, Lulla, Lullay, which formed a brief interlude of calm before Dietrich Buxtehude's very lively Baroque setting of two biblical verses, Colossians 3:17 and Psalm 37:4:
Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
Our soloists for the Buxtehude were choir's own Anne Price Jones (sop) and Tony Taylor (bass).
After the interval the choir performed a number of shorter Christmas carols.
- Benjamin Britten - A Hymn to the Virgin, in which the choir's singing alternates with a quartet at the back of the church (Quartet: Sylvia Jones, Elizabeth Humphreys, Roger Bradley, Martyn Thorn)
- Elaine Hagenburg - Alleluia
- Eric Whitacre - Glow
- Sally Beamish - In the Stillness of the Night
- Michael Head - The Little Road to Bethlehem
- John Rutter - Mary's Lullaby
- J.H. Hopkins arr. John Rutter - Three Kings of Orient (Soloists: Tim Ford, Ken Bailey, Jonathan Williams)
- John Rutter - Shepherd's Pipe Carol
Singing in the second half was enhanced by Marian Hutchinson's harp playing and Rhian Humphreys's flute.
Needless to say, the three Rutter carols were included, not only on musical merit, but because Sir John Rutter celebrated his eightieth birthday in November and the choir wished to play its part in this popular British composer's special year. Our concerts have benefitted for many years from the wealth of Christmas and choral music Rutter has composed.
After some rousing audience participation in O Come All Ye Faithful, the concert ended with a farewell encore, Philip Stopford's A Christmas Blessing.
The evening concluded with a raffle, drinks and mince pies, as the extremely appreciative audience mingled and chatted for some time afterwards. It was good to see Friends, family members and retired singers among the audience, as well as some new faces, who we hope very much will wish to come along to future concerts.
The collection at the end of the concert raised £30.00 for the homeless charity, Shelter.
