Weymouth Choral Society brought back the true sense of Christmas at their concert at St Paul’s Church, Weymouth on Saturday 18 December – with careful health and safety guidance in place, what a pleasure to share the experience of live music at this special time of year. Musical Director, Helen Brind, had selected a programme that demonstrated great versatility in style from traditional favourites such as ‘Silent Night’ through to a Brazilian Rumba, the sparkling and fast ‘Carol of the Bells’ and a rousing finale of ‘O Come all ye Faithful’. The choir sang this varied programme with confidence and clear enjoyment which was a delight to see and hear. It was also a nice touch to have individual choir members stepping forward to sing solo verses in 3 of the carols – Liz Evans, Judy Walbrin and Chris King are to be commended for their contributions. The choral sections were punctuated by items from the multi-talented Lizzie Peacock who not only accompanied the choir on the piano for most of the pieces but also performed several solos. Lizzie’s rendition of two traditional carols on the Celtic harp was spell-binding and her two vocal solos were equally enchanting, delivered with great purity of tone. Organist James Lloyd Thomas put the church organ through its paces for several of the carols and played two interesting and contrasting Chorale Preludes with great aplomb.
After the trials and tribulations of the last months, Weymouth Choral Society is to be congratulated on a truly enjoyable evening which really did bring much-needed ‘Tidings of Joy!’.
A. Day
