Canticles of Light
Saturday 12th July at 7:30pm
St John the Baptist, Alresford, SO24 9AG
£18 (age 21 and under, £10)
A word from our Musical Director...
The Canticles of Light were commissioned in 2000 by Winchester Music Club and present a darker core to the evening as they explore the theme light growing into day. It opens with tubular bells tolling the close of day and this leads into the first two pieces that set ancient Latin hymns - prayers for protection and comfort through the darkness. The third and final piece sets a Latin morning prayer as the light grows once again into day. Bob Chilcott returns in June to lead a Come & Sing workshop on this very piece with the Winchester Philharmonic Choir and we hope that singers and Wintonians will enjoy the chance to hear the work, once again, in its entirety and with its full instrumental accompaniment.
Morten Lauridsen is perhaps best known for his Christmas work O magnum mysterium with its sumptuous harmonies and signature style. Lux Aeterna most definitely has Lauridsen’s fingerprints on it and rather neatly offers a celebration of eternal light that sits very well with this midsummer concert. The work is, in fact, a requiem but not as we know it. It is in 5 movements with the central 3 set to non-liturgical words: Te Deum, O Nata Lux, and Veni, Sancte Spiritus. The music is described as tranquil, light-filled and approachable, exploring the universality of light. Text aside, the music could almost be interpreted as a modern journey around the cosmos reminiscent of Holst’s famous Planet Suite. It is most certainly a new American classic.
The ensemble will also entertain us with two lighter works taken from Gerald Finzi’s delightful 5 Bagatelles for Clarinet and Strings: Forlana and Romance – Andante tranquillo from 7 Poems of Robert Bridges by Gerald Finzi, Jamal has chosen 3 that seem to offer the quintessential character of the English countryside at this time of year with all its ‘joie de vivre’. At the other end of the spectrum, Eric Whitacre’s intensely beautiful Lux aurumque (With a lily in your hand) will be familiar to Classic FM listeners and similarly a beautiful elegance is heard in Thou my love, art fair, a setting of a sixteenth century English poem by William Baldwin and here arranged by Bob Chilcott. The fun begins with a fabulous setting of the Appalachian folksong As I went down to the river to pray by Phillip Lawson and made famous by the Kings’ Singers. It cleverly builds up layers of harmony from a single voice at the opening and is great fun to sing. We return to Bob Chilcott with 3 more fantastic and highly entertaining arrangements. Feller from Fortune is a traditional Newfoundland fishing song arranged with a dizzying mix of vocal spaghetti! The Gift to be simple winds it way in and around outbursts of the tune ‘I danced in the morning when the world was begun’ with enormous skill and We Are, another Kings’ Singers favourite, adds a refreshing, modern twist.
Conductor: JAMAL SUTTON
Programme:
Gerald Finzi - 7 Poems of Robert Bridges (selection)- I praise the tender flower
- Haste on, my joys
- My spirit sang all day
Bob Chilcott - Canticles of Light
- Te lucis ante terminum
- Christe, qui, splendor et dies
- O nata lux de lumine
Gerald Finzi - Forlana from 5 Bagatelles for Clarinet and Strings
Eric Whitacre - Lux aurumque or With a lily in your hand
Spiritual arr. Lawson - As I went down to the river to pray
arr. Chilcott - Thou my love, art fair
Folksong arr. Chilcott - Feller from Fortune
INTERVAL
Gerald Finzi - Romance – Andante tranquillo from 5 Bagatelles
Morten Lauridsen - Lux aeterna
Trad. arr. Chilcott - The Gift to be simple
arr. Chilcott - We Are
