Lively way to swing into Christmas
Swinging Into Christmas Gledholt Male Voice Choir, Musica Mirfield Swing Band St Paul’s Concert Hall, University of Huddersfield
WHAT fun to be amongst an almost full house despite a cold and wet night and the distraction of Strictly Come Dancing Final.
You can “catch up” on the latter, but this particular live concert was a one-off, although being audio recorded for training purposes.
Graham Kelly has been compering Gledholt Male Voice Choir concerts for more than 20 years, having taken over on a ‘temporary’ basis from choir member Harry Woodhead.
During his time in the role, he has compered 170 concerts, his sense of humour and endless tall stories amusing the audiences, whilst relaxing the choirmen and joining the pieces together.
He is the glue that holds the choirmen together on the stage.
Last Saturday was a treat for the audience as the men of Gledholt shared the stage with Musica Mirfield Swing Band.
Between them they produced a lively mixture of fresh and mature pieces, coming together to entertain the fully appreciative and knowledgeable audience.
The choirmen responded well to musical director Susan Wilkinson’s promptings, whilst Jane Robertson gave a highly polished performance on her favourite Steinway Concert Grand – a real privilege for any pianist.
The men started things off with a traditional Christmas favourite, Oh Holy Night, followed by soloist Dave Barnett with The Three Kings.
The audience was treated to a second half repeat of this latter piece for the benefit of the recording.
The Swing Band then came rocking in with White Christmas, under the direction of Nick Dolling who, although hailing from Budleigh Salterton in Devon, seems to have adopted the Northern lingo.
Nick is very much part of the local band scene having been around West Yorkshire now for 20 years and counting, and was musical director for shows such as Me and My Girl, High Society and The Wizard of Oz.
There had to be a certain amount of telepathy between the two MDs as they were stood one behind the other with the choirmen taking front stage and the Swing Band behind, but the pair managed it admirably, due to their undoubted musicality and abilities.
The second half opened with When the Saints..., a joint piece with no prior rehearsal, although the fully engaged audience would never have known this if the compere had not “let the cat out of the bag”.
But with this his final concert before retirement, Graham felt he could divulge the odd secret or two.
The two Gledholt showstoppers were I Dreamed a Dream and Stars, both from Les Mis, but the music of Schönberg, with words by Kretzmer and Boublil, also brought a thunderous round of applause.
And so it was all too soon that this lively and enterprising concert made up of 40 plus men of Gledholt, complemented by 20-plus young musicians from Mirfield and environs, their leaders, accompanists and soloists; Liz, Ollie and Victoria for the Swing Band, together with Thomas and Dave from Gledholt – came to a close.
A fully-deserved award was presented to retiring compere Graham by the choir president on stage, which gave rise to a rapturous round of applause.
And, yes, as the title of the Swing Band soloists Liz and Ollie’s penultimate piece says, Baby it’s Cold Outside – but ever so warm inside with a wonderful community feeling on the lead-up to Christmas and the festive season.