Music to stir the soul at St Elli Parish Church, Llanelli

The Swansea Bach Choir, The Singhs violin trio and pianist Guillaume Mathias. Loud Applause productions Midsummer Music concert held at St Elli Parish Church, Llanelli.
As you’d expect from a concert in the wonderful surroundings of St Elli Parish Church, this was a ‘heavenly’ occasion.
It was music to stir the soul; choral singing at its very best, blended with virtuoso musicianship.
The packed audience at Llanelli’s Parish Church can consider themselves well blessed in being allowed to sit in on such a musical masterclass.
The Swansea Bach Choir has made its mark down the years in performing Baroque classics, the major works of Bach and, basically, most of the great choral works of the last five centuries.
There was no Bach on the programme, but no-one was complaining as conductor Greg Hallam carefully chose a repertoire designed to showcase the very best of the choir.
Britten’s Hymn to St Cecilia set the standard for the evening and was followed by Walton’s A Litany and two works by the American composer Whitacre, A Boy And A Girl and Lux Aurumque.
The second half included In Youth Is Pleasure (Howells), The Turtle Dove (Vaughan Williams) and I Love My Love (Holst).
The highlight, however was a dazzling Miserere (Allegri). Conductor Hallam’s clever distribution of voices between pulpit and altar helped weave a musical tapestry of sound.
(As a point of interest, one of the members of the Swansea Bach Choir is Claire Mansel Lewis, of Stradey Castle, Llanelli.)
The ‘local heroes’ of the night were The Singhs, three outstanding violinists from the famous Singh family in Llandybie who feel a close connection with Llanelli through the old Llanelli Star Young Musician of the Year competition.
Rakhi, Davinder and Simran Singh are excellent musicians in their own right, but when they come together as a trio the imact isn’t so much ‘multipy by three’ as’multiply by a factor of 10.
It sounds strange to say this of a classical music concert, but there were plenty of occasions when they ‘really rocked’ at Saturday’s concert.
Sospan Fach and The Sabre Dance were performed with such energy that many rock bands would be left panting in the wake of The Singhs.
There was plenty of emotion along the way, too, as The Singhs included Claire de Lune, Y Bore Glas, Llongau Caernarfon, Hiraeth and Myfanwy in their repertoire.
Pianist Guillaume Mathias was not to be outshone and his performance of two Chopin Mazurkas in the first half of the evening announced his ‘arrival’ at St Elli Church.
After the interval, he left everyone spellbound with Schubert's Hungarian Melody and Czardas Obstiné by Liszt. In the latter, close observers of Guillaume’s technique were able to confirm that his hands were a blur on the keyboard.
There was a predictable (but thoroughly deserved) standing ovation for the artistes.
The reward was an ‘encore’ of Calon Lan as performed by all the artistes. It was stunning stuff.
The evening had begun with ‘pre-concert’ entertainment featuring Loud Applause Rising Stars Samuel Morris (singer) and Cai Charles (guitarist) at Llanelly House.
The host for the evening was the splendid Rev Eldon Phillips.
Yes, the audience at St Elli was well blessed indeed!

ROBERT LLOYD

Photo: After the concert - Front row, Claire Mansel Lewis, Swansea Bach Choir, Rakhi Singh, Rev Eldon Phillips, Simmy Singh and Alison Owens concert organiser. Back row,  Greg Hallam, Swansea Bach Conductor, and Cerith Owens, concert organiser.