Saturday 26 June 2010 – All Saints Pastoral Centre
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Peace
Randall Thompson was one of the great American composers of the twentieth century. The Peaceable Kingdom was inspired by the painting of the same name by the nineteenth-century American artist Edward Hicks. Pro Pace, a cycle of three unaccompanied Latin Motets, by John Joubert is a beautiful work of great emotional power. These pieces will be performed between the movements of Josquin des Prez’s Missa Da Pacem.
Tickets are available from the Ticket Secretary on 0845 658 8982 (local call rate) or from www.wegottickets.com/stalbanschamberchoir.
Further information
For the St Albans Chamber Choir’s summer concert, Musical Director John Gibbons once again draws together an inspiring programme of varied music from the Renaissance to the present day, much of it rarely performed.
John Joubert (born 1927) is one of the most respected and distinguished of senior British composers. His three Pro Pace Motets, though written at different times, form a triptych on the subject of peace. The first, composed in 1955, is a setting of a 9th century Latin prayer for deliverance from the Black Death which for Joubert stood for the threat of atomic annihilation. The second is a 10th century Latin lament for the day on which man first invented weapons for use against his own kind, and a protest against such use, and the final one seeks to equate Christ’s victory over death in the Passion story with the eventual victory of non-violence.
The works of the American composer Randall Thompson (1899–1984) are rarely heard outside the States so this is a welcome opportunity to hear one of his greatest works, The Peaceable Kingdom. Written in 1936, its inspiration was the painting of the same name by the 19th century American primitive artist Edward Hicks, with texts drawn from the Old Testament Book of Isaiah. The work was written at a time when American composers were trying to build a distinctly American style and is considered a masterpiece of American choral music.
The Missa da Pacem, although often attributed to Josquin des Prez (c. 1440–1521), has been the centre of much scholarly debate as to whether it really is the work of the great Franco-Flemish Renaissance composer. However, this wonderful work, based on the chant melody “Da pacem” (“give peace”), certainly ranks among the polyphonic masterpieces of the early 16th century.
An atmospheric setting of the Lord’s Prayer Pater Noster by the young contemporary Latvian composer Rihards Dubra, and Drop, drop slow tears, a piece by the young British composer Brian Moles, until recently a Lay Clerk at St Albans Cathedral, together with works for solo violin, will complete the programme.
Saturday 12 June 2010 – St Albans Abbey
Magna Carta Celebration – Mahler Symphony No 2 ‘Resurrection’
In this celebration of the anniversary of Magna Carta, the Chamber Choir joins forces with St Albans Symphony Orchestra and Watford Philharmonic Society to present Mahler’s Second Symphony. This work will be preceded by a performance of Howard Hanson’s Song of Human Rights and Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man.
For concert details please click on the following two links, Poster and Details. For more information about the Magna Carta Weekend, please click Events
Tickets are available from St Albans Symphony Orchestra Ticket Secretary on 01727 857422 or from tickets@saso.org.uk
Saturday 24 April 2010 at 7.30pm – St Peter’s Church, St Albans
Petite Messe Solennelle
Rossini came out of his Parisian retirement to write this cheerful and tuneful setting of the Mass. We also present works by Delius and Fauré, who lived in Paris during their lives, whilst Morten Lauridsen’s Nocturnes set one of Rilke’s French poems along with one each by the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda and the American James Agee.
Tickets are available from the Ticket Secretary on 0845 658 8982 (local call rate) or from www.wegottickets.com/stalbanschamberchoir.
St Albans Chamber Choir welcomes the Spring with Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, a piece that never fails to lift the spirits of all who hear it. Written in 1863 when Rossini was 71, the Petite Messe is neither small, solemn nor particularly liturgical in spirit, coming as it does from the pen of a composer whose considerable reputation was built upon his many grand comic operas. In his own comment on the work, Rossini acknowledged that it was one of his ‘sins of old age’, and said ‘Delight must be the basis and aim of this art’.
The Petite Messe, with its beautiful melodies, rhythmic vitality and joyous choruses, is a delight throughout. Written initially for private salon performance, the work is scored for small chorus, a solo quartet and the unusual accompaniment of piano and harmonium. Four young award-winning soloists will join the Chamber Choir for this performance:
Anna Gorbachyova – soprano
Amanda O’Brien – contralto
Philip O’Brien – tenor
James Oldfield – bass-baritone
Whilst Rossini was composing what was to be his last major work, the young Fauré was still a student. The much-loved Cantique de Jean Racine of 1865, a setting of words by the famous 17th century dramatist and poet, was his first significant composition and, with its lush harmonies, it has become one of his most popular works.
The Chamber Choir will also perform two very beautiful and uplifting unaccompanied part-songs, Delius’s To be sung of a summer night on the water, and Finzi’s My Spirit Sang all Day, and the programme will be completed with pieces by two award-winning contemporary American composers whose works have featured in the Chamber Choir’s recent concerts, Nocturnes by Morten Lauridsen and Sleep by Eric Whitacre.
Saturday 27 February 2010 at 7.30pm – St Albans Abbey
Gloria: Music for Choir and Brass
Singing with brass instruments has a long and distinguished history, with the Venetian composers of the sixteenth century placing choirs of singers and brass players in all four corners of St Mark’s Basilica to dramatic effect. So for tonight’s concert St Albans Chamber Choir is delighted to be joining forces with Onyx Brass.
Tickets are available from the Ticket Secretary on 0845 658 8982 (local call rate) or by e-mailing “tickets”.
You can download our Season Programme 2009-10 here
Gloria – music for choir and brass
The principal works in the programme are The World is Charged with the Grandeur of God (1969) by Arthur Bliss, a former Master of the Queen’s Musik, a setting of John Skelton’s meditation on the Passion Woefully Arrayed by our conductor and one of John Rutter’s most popular pieces: Gloria. A short piece from off the beaten track, which has achieved a cult following, is Hanaq pachap kusikuynin (Heaven’s joy), from Renaissance Peru. Also included are two superb examples of ‘polychoral’ motets by Gabrieli: Buccinate in neomenia tuba (19 voices in 4 choirs) and Exultet iam angelica (14 voices in 3 choirs) and short works by Schütz and Bach, and you will be blown away by Bruckner’s stunning motets Christus factus est and Ecce sacerdos magnus, which features the full power of the brass and organ.
Since 1993 Onyx Brass has been dominating the international brass chamber music world. Dubbed “easily the classiest brass ensemble in Britain” by BBC Music Magazine, it has performed at festivals all over Europe and the USA to huge critical acclaim.
Work with choirs forms a vital part of Onyx’s work: in recent times the group has worked with the BBC Singers, the Brighton Festival Chorus, the Choir of St Brides, Fleet Street, as well as superb amateur choirs including the choir of Selwyn College, Cambridge.
The concert is expected to finish by 9.30pm. Large print versions of the programme will be available. To receive publicity about our future concerts (either by regular mail or email) please telephone 01727 830871 or email friends@stalbanschamberchoir.org.uk.