A thought provoking climax to this year's North Wales International Music Festival took place in St Asaph Cathedral on Sunday.

“We are sold out and are full to capacity - slightly over capacity,” joked the Very Revd Nigel Williams, Dean of St Asaph Cathedral– at the start of the festival's final concert, a Reflection On The Centenary Of The End Of The Great War featuring Holywell-born Hollywood actor Jonathan Pryce, Trelawnyd & Bro Glyndwr Male Voice Choirs, Cor Cytgan Clwyd and A5 Brass Quintet.

The Cathedral looked at it’s best with a atmospheric lighting and a scaffolding stage for members of Trelawnyd & Bro Glyndwr Male Voice Choirs.

A5 set the tone for the evening followed by Trelawnyd and Bro Glyndwr Male Voice Choirs conducted by the festival's Musical Director Ann Atkinson, with performances of Robat Arwyn’s Anfonaf Angel and Bring Him Home from Les Miserables.

Jonathan Pryce masterfully delivered the first poem of the evening In Flanders Fields by John McRae.

Cor Cytgan Clwyd performed Karl Jenkins The Peacemakers, Y Goleuni iachol, Cynigaf Hedd before Jonathan Pryce delivered a heartfelt version of Dulce et Decorum Est by war poet Wilfred Owen followed by Trelawnyd & Bro Glyndwr Male Voice Choirs who provided a moving version of Abide with Me combining the talents of A5 Brass Quintet.

The quintet gave their own version of Samuel Barners Adagio for Strings used to great effect in Oliver Stone's film Platoon to illustrate the horrors of conflict.

Following the interval A5 Brass Quintet got the second half underway with a version of William Mathias Summer Dances.

The audience were treated to Jonathan Pryce’s reading of The Cenotaph by Charlotte Mew. Cor Cytgan Clwyd thrilled the audience with a chillingly arranged version of Sanctus from The Armed Man which featured percussion from Delia Stevens reminiscent of soldiers marching off to war.

This was followed by a performance of the festival's contributor Prof Paul Maelor and his critically acclaimed and popular Military Wives collaboration of Wherever You Are with soloists Tesni Jones and Lisa Dafydd plus both choirs, a performance which successfully combined both young and old voices seamlessly.

The next two pieces of music introduced by Mrs Atkinson, the moving Mansions of the Lord and Tell My Father concluded with a poignant refrain of The Last Post played offstage.

The assembled audience's heads bowed in solemn silence to remember the actions of those men a century earlier during the anthem, synonymous with remembering the dead, followed by another recital from Johnathan Pryce of Aftermath by Siegfried Sassoon.

The choirs and the A5 Brass Quintet performed a medley including It’s a Long Way to Tipperary, Over There, and Pack Up Your Troubles written by St Asaph brothers Felix and George Powell.

This was followed by a favourite Welsh hymn Mi glywaf dyner lais in which the male voice choir delivered what can only be described as an emotionally-charged wall of sound.

Mrs Atkinson said it had been a wonderful evening with organisers having worked towards staging the final concert for over a year, described as "our own simple tribute to all those men who we lost”.

Jonathan Pryce said “What a great privilege to be here tonight with my choir (Côr Meibion Trelawnyd male voice choir)," quipped Jonathan Pryce, who thanked the audience for giving him such a warm welcome, before joining Côr Meibion Trelawnyd male voice choir for a final rousing reprise of Pack Up Your Troubles to conclude the suitably moving and reflective evening honouring the sacrifice of those who fought in the Great War.

“It’s wonderful to be here. I am vice president of the choir and it’s wonderful to sit amongst them at last," he said.

"I have never been able to get here before, tonight for one night only I’m free."