December 2024 concert
Messiah
George Frederick Handel
Excerpts from Handel's towering oratorio Messiah including the famous Hallelujah Chorus with joyful seasonal works by Berlioz, Morten Lauridsen and selected French and English composers from the middle ages to the present day.
'To God alone the glory' wrote Handel at the end of the manuscript of Messiah, surely the most extraordinary and popular sacred oratorio of all and written in a mere 24 days in 1741 from a libretto of biblical extracts compiled by Handel's friend and collaborator Charles Jenner. We perform extracts from Messiah which embody the sheer genius and range of Handel's intricate composition and musical architecture.
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Morten Lauridsen is one of the most celebrated contempory choral composers of our time. We perform one of his most famous settings, Magnum Mysterium, alongside Heitor Berlioz' Shepherd's Farewell from his oratorio L'Enfance du Christ.
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The season of winter brings with it rich traditions of joyful celebration. We mark these traditions and what they affirm with settings of poems by Robert Louis Stephenson, Robert Frost, Malcolm Guite and by Will Inscoe and Tim Shell.
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