Eternity’s SunriseSomerset Chamber ChoirKing’s College Chapel, Taunton Sunday 4 January 2004 at 3pm 20th-century English & American choral masterpieces
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John Rutter Requiem
Leonard Bernstein Chichester Psalms
Roxanna Panufnik Westminster Mass
Sophie Bevan Soprano
Tim Mead Countertenor
Sally Pryce HarpRichard Pearce Organ
Oliver Cox & Owen Gunnell Percussion
Katherine Bicknell Flute
Rosie Hillier Oboe
Gabriella Swallow Cello
Graham Caldbeck Conductor
Somerset Chamber Choir …the choir has firmly established itself as among the best’ Somerset County Gazette
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Eternity’s Sunrise is the intriguing title of our vibrant and distinctive New Year concert of three twentieth-century masterpieces for choir and small instrumental ensemble. Within these accessible and appealing works, each composer displays a flair for bringing familiar, ancient liturgical texts in English, Hebrew and Latin up-to-date in settings containing memorable melodies, expressive harmonies, vivid orchestration and dramatic contrasts. All three works were composed with a specific building in mind - the Rutter (1985) for King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, the Bernstein (1965) for Chichester Cathedral and the Panufnik (1997) for Westminster Cathedral on the occasion of Cardinal Hume’s 75th birthday. Each celebrates the rich English choral tradition viewed respectively from the differing perspectives of an Anglican, an American Jew and an expatriate Polish Roman Catholic. Plainsong mingles with jazz harmonies, dance rhythms vie with lyrical melodies and each work features what Panufnik has described as ‘the impulsive rhythms and irregular pitch patterns of pealing church bells’. For Rutter ‘the ideals of beauty and calm reverence’ which he associates with the King’s College choir ‘represent inspiration and hope in an often heartbreakingly cruel and disordered world’. On a lighter note, in an amusing verse appearing in the New York Times, Bernstein described his new work thus: ‘These psalms are a simple and mordent affair, tonal and tuneful and somewhat square.’
The choir is joined by two of the UK’s most promising young singers, Sophie Bevan soprano and Tim Mead countertenor, five talented instrumentalists from the Royal College of Music, virtuoso organist Richard Pearce and, making a welcome return, Sally Pryce harp, the brilliant soloist last January in the choir’s performance of Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols.
But he who catches the Joy as it flies Lives in… Eternity’s Sunrise William Blake
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