City Chorus Christmas Concert

Charpentier: Messe de Minuit de Noël

Our wonderful carol concert begins with the Messe de Minuit de Noël by Marc Antoine Charpentier which will be interspersed with seasonal choral and instrumental interludes. Marc Antoine Charpentier (1643 – 1704) was a leading French composer of the Baroque period who composed during the reign of Louis the Fourteenth, a golden age for French culture. Our second half has favourite Christmas pieces and some fresh discoveries!

One of the audience carols will be the well known ‘Silent Night, Holy Night’. In 1914 during the Great War, German and Allied soldiers from the trenches reached out to exchange seasonal greetings across the area of No Man’s Land. This carol is most closely associated with what became known as the Christmas Truce, and in March 2011 it was declared an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO.

Philip Shannon will perform the organ prelude from the Te Deum by Charpentier. This was composed during the period when Charpentier was maitre de musique for the Jesuits of St St Louis le Grand, and when the Messe de Minuit de Noel was composed. The piece is rousing and grand, as befits the Te Deum hymn of praise, and is well suited to the splendid organ at St Sepulchre’s.

City Chorus concerts are famously convivial evenings filled with family, friends and supporters of the choir. Please join us for carols and festive refreshments in the interval and afterwards. Don't miss this sensational evening.

Paul Ayres, conductor;  Philip Shannon, organ and piano; 5 vocal soloists (SSATB): Vanessa Bowers, Mimi Doulton, Phillipa Thomas, Richard Hansen, James Williams
8 instrumentalists (2 flutes 2 violins, 2 violas, cello, double bass)

Our spring concert will be on 7 April 2017, when we will be singing the Requiem by Maurice Duruflé and the Magnificat by Antonio Vivaldi. If you cannot wait that long, then please join us at our choral workshop on the Duruflé Requiem, which will take place at St Stephen’s Church, Gloucester Road on Saturday the 14 January, all welcome (price £20).