'Feast of wonderful song' at choral society concert

A Summer Serenade

Weymouth Choral Society

St Aldhelm's Church Centre, Spa Road, Weymouth

Review

Weymouth Choral’s famous annual tea party concert played to a full house. As well as a feast of wonderful song, the audience was treated to a tempting spread of sumptuous cakes and a surprisingly musical offering of pilchards!

The first half of the concert held a maritime theme in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the RNLI. Opening the programme with the popular music hall classic; ‘I do like to be beside the seaside’, this section showcased beautiful harmonic singing as demonstrated in the heart achingly beautiful ‘Harbour’ written by Anna Tabbush and the haunting arrangement of ‘Amazing Grace’. Likewise, ‘All through the night’ opened with the lovely voice of Mark Dickin firstly singing solo and then harmony throughout the remaining verses.

To mark the bicentenary of the RNLI, the choir sang a modern arrangement of the naval hymn ‘Eternal Father strong to save’. The last verse, written by lifeboat crew member, Richard ‘Mac’ MacDonald, is dedicated to lifeboat crews. To end this first section, the choir sang ‘Nothing like pilchards’; a sea shanty lamenting the decline of the West Country pilchard trade.

The second half of the programme was dedicated to musical theatre, beginning with a medley of songs from ‘Les Miserables’ and with many of the choir singing solos. Perhaps the highlight of the afternoon was the husband-and-wife duet singing All I ask of you from ‘Phantom of the Opera’.

This was pure musical theatre. Robert and Priscilla Blanchard brought true drama and raw emotion to this evocative number, causing many of the audience to shed a tear at the sheer brilliance of their performance. It was a delight to see Melodie Baines and Dot Vale perform ‘Flash, bang, wallop’ accompanied by enthusiastic audience participation.

This was an important concert for Melodie with the announcement that she is stepping down from the post of chairman and a lovely presentation was made to mark her success and hard work. The afternoon ended with a selection of songs from ‘The Sound of Music’, showcasing the choir’s extraordinary high standard of singing that ended in an exalted crescendo.

None of this would have been possible without the amazing talent of musical director, Helen Brind, who devised this programme and conducted the choir with such flair and skill. Likewise, the accompaniment of Louise Dukes and Keith Espin was pivotal to the success of this event. As always, Louise’s brilliant and empathetic playing on piano shone, and Keith’s adept performance on double bass and guitar added colour and depth. Indeed, during the interval, the audience enjoyed the enchanting background music provided by the Summer Serenaders, a trio of exceptional talent that is Louise, Keith and Helen.

If you missed out on this concert, keep up to date with all Weymouth Choral news and upcoming events by visiting weymouthchoralsociety.org.uk and facebook.com/WeymouthChoralSocietyDorset.

Make sure you don’t miss next year’s Summer Serenade and enjoy a musical treat served with a helping of delicious cake, without the pilchards!

Next event: 16th November Choral Workshop The Thomas Hardye School Dorchester

Next concert: 14th December Christmas at the Movies St John’s Church Weymouth