Brecon Singers Concerts & News

 News from the Brecon Singers

The Brecon Singers started their new year with rehearsals beginning on 7^th September 2011.  Be you soprano, alto, tenor or bass you’ll be made very welcome.

 The choir rehearses at Christ College from 7.30 pm to 9.30 pm.  For more information contact the choir’s secretary on 01874 624880.  mike.harding@blueyonder.co.uk

This coming year is full of exciting new events, as well as carrying on traditions built up over many years.    The choir will be holding ‘Christmas Cheer’ in St Mary’s Church in Brecon, on Wednesday 7^th December, as well as leading the Rotary Carol Concert at the Cathedral on  Monday 19^th December.

In April 2012 the Brecon Singers are supporting the choirs of Christ College, Brecon, in a performance of Carmina Burana at the Brangwyn Hall, in Swansea.  The year ends, in July 2012, with a concert of summer music in St Michael and all Angels Church, Cwmdu.

Handel’s Messiah in Brecon Cathedral - a review written by Jutta Drew, Llanfilo

The majestic edifice of Brecon Cathedral is, at all times, a most fitting venue for any orchestral performance but, on this occasion, it was simply perfect.

On Saturday, the 19^th of November, Georg Friedrich Handel’s Messiah, resounded through the Cathedral and a spell-bound audience listened with rapt attention.

In the years after Handel’s death Messiah  had been performed on an ever grander scale with giant orchestras and huge choirs, but here in the very capable hands of charming Conductor and Musical Director, Richard West of Christ College, this sacred topic returned to its authentic vocal and instrumental forces. Gathered closely together in front of the altar the Brecon Singers and their choir Chairman, Mike Harding, comprised a choir of nearly a hundred powerful and enthusiastic voices of all ages. Looking at their smiling faces we could see how they enjoyed their performance as much as we did in the packed audience.

The Festival Orchestra was led by Simon Jones and he guided us with great passion through the scriptural texts of the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer.   The four soloists with Louise Merrifield, Soprano - Michael Chance CBE,  Countertenor – Peter Wilman, Tenor and Tim Nelson, Bass, delighted us with their exquisite rendition throughout and up to the ultimate Glorification in Heaven. Which made some of us stand up and applaud with gusto, earlier than is generally done, but when one’s heart is touched and one’s senses affected, gratitude defies convention and the audience’s enthusiastic applause at the very end showed our great appreciation for all members of this great cast.    

I must call this a most appropriate performance for the opening of the Festive Season as  Messiah is such an enduring part of one’s life but the superlative is richly deserved, for this enchanting presentation of one of the best-known and most frequently performed Oratorios in Western Music.

The Brecon Singers performing Messiah in the Cathedral (above)