Our next concerts
Saturday 15 June 2013
Flowers of the Field
7.30pm St Saviour’s Church
Sandpit Lane, St Albans AL1 4DF
With Hattie Webster - solo flute
Join St Albans Chamber Choir for a bouquet of flower-scented summer music. Inspiring the theme is the Missa ‘Ego flos campi’ (I am the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys, from the Song of Songs,) by Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla (c.1590 – 1664). Padilla was born in Spain but moved to the New World in 1622, where his prodigious output made him one of the most important Mexican composers of the post-Renaissance era.
In contrast with this early work, the rest of the programme features music from the beginning of both the 20th and 21st centuries and some of our outstanding contemporary British composers. Songs of Springtime (c1930) are settings of Elizabethan poems by Ernest John Moeran (1894 –1950), one of the composers deeply influenced by English folk-song and following in the lyrical tradition of Delius and Vaughan Williams.
The four unaccompanied madrigals Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal by Paul Mealor (b.1975) are delicate, atmospheric settings of texts concerning roses as a metaphor for love. Mealor was catapulted to international attention when his motet Ubi caritas was performed at the wedding of HRH Prince William and Catherine Middleton in 2011, and he was subsequently voted the ‘nation’s favourite living composer’ in the 2012 Classic FM Hall of Fame.
Described by the Observer as ‘a contemporary hero of British Choral Music’, Bob Chilcott (b.1955) has published over 125 works. I Share Creation is an uplifting and joyful collection of four evocative texts exploring man’s relationship with the earth taken from ancient Chinese, Aztec, Eskimo, and Native American cultures. Chilcott’s settings brim with the energy typical of his work, and his skill for reflecting the essence and meaning of words in music shines throughout.
G. de Padilla Missa ‘Ego flos campi’
E J Moeran Songs of Springtime
Paul Mealor Now sleeps the Crimson Petal
Bob Chilcott I share Creation
Tickets £13 (£1 child/student)
Tel 07570 454744 or email tickets@stalbanschamberchoir.org.uk
or online at www.allaboutstalbans.com
This concert is part of St Albans Summer Music 2013
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Forthcoming concerts 2013-14
Saturday 26 October 2013
St Cecilia Festival Society
Brahms A German Requiem
St Albans Cathedral
Tickets £25, £20, £15 reserved;
£8 unreserved; £1 accompanied children
available from:
Festival Society Box Office
Tel: 0845 475 1664
Cathedral Information Desk
Tel: 01727 890256
or online at www.allaboutstalbans.com
5, £20, £15 reserved; £8 unreserved (restricted
Saturday 7 December 2013 The Christmas Story – St Saviour’s Church
Saturday 1 March 2014 Vision of Versailles – St Saviour’s Church
Saturday 17 May 2014 Rachmaninov Vespers – St Albans Cathedral
Saturday 5 July 2014 Go Brazilian! – St Peter’s
Tel 07570 454744 or email tickets@stalbanschamberchoir.org.uk
or online at www.allaboutstalbans.com