Choral group in tune for Christmas
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Tain Choral Group, which includes Sutherland members, held their Carols for Christmas concert in Tain’s Duthac Centre yesterday.
Their programme was enhanced by excellent contributions from Craighill Primary School’s choir.
The group performed a varied selection of carols, interspersed with opportunities for communal carol singing.
The audience, for their part, showed themselves to be in fine voice from the outset with a lusty rendition of Hark the Herald Angels Sing.
The choir also proved to be in good form with the opening selection of international carols from Poland, Venezuela and Germany respectively. They began with a very bright performance of The Coming of Our King and then immediately changed the mood with the gentler Come and Hasten Shepherds.
Strong solos from Gerry Revie and Trish Geddes opened What Child is This and when the whole choir joined in their phrasing was very precisely accented. This was followed by the beautiful Iona and then Carol of the Bagpipers provided further contrast with the singing evoking features of pipe tunes.
Lydia Jackson, musical director of the choral group, provided evidence throughout of her arranging skills. An example was O Little Town of Bethlehem, sung to an unusual tune and featuring a fine solo from Elaine Griffiths.
The Craighill Primary School choir performed four pieces, two in the first half of the programme and two in the second. Winter Wonderland showed immediately what a strong group of young singers this is. Starry Night was an extremely engaging, lively performance and they showcased an unusual tune for Away in a Manger. It was clear that their work with musical director Emily Bond had been very effective and the audience’s warm applause was very well deserved.
One of the choral group’s pieces in the second half of the programme was John Rutter’s These Are the Colours of Christmas. This carol says “these are the colours of Christmas, let them shine all over the earth”. The variety of pieces from the junior and the senior choirs gave a great variety of musical colour to please the audience.
The interval provided opportunities for socialising and for sampling mulled wine and mince pies. Thus fortified, the audience gave a good account of themselves in the closing communal singing of Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer and Jingle Bell Rock.
The concert ended with a presentation to Lydia Jackson in recognition of all her work in preparing the choral group for this concert. The warm applause showed how widely this appreciation was shared.
