Month: February 2016

Spring concert 2016

Our Spring Concert at 7.30 on Saturday, 19 March 2016 has the evocative title ‘From Darkness to Light’. As the dark of the winter evenings gradually gives way to the bright light of springlike days (and after such a doleful winter some sunshine has been truly welcome recently), the Southport Bach Choir have been rehearsing for a concert to include music by Duruflé, Lauridsen and Britten.

Duruflé’s Requiem has become popular with British choirs, often being paired with the earlier Requiem by Fauré. Although Duruflé was composing his work during the Second World War, he does not include a Dies irae, as one might expect, so that the requiem lacks the ferocity of Verdi’s, for instance. The gloom of the early movements is lifted with the serenity of the chant-like Lux aeterna and the final In Paradisum.

‘Lux aeterna’ is the title of the work we shall be singing by the popular American composer, Morten Lauridsen, written in 1997. It is a cycle of 5 pieces, all of which contain references to light, taken from various Latin texts. The first and last movements come from the requiem mass: Requiem aeternam and Agnus Dei – Lux aeterna. The second movement is part of the Te Deum (In te, Domine, speravi), the third is an unaccompanied motet, O nata lux and it is followed by the jubilant canticle, Veni Sancte Spiritus.

The third piece in the concert, Rejoice in the Lamb, is Benjamin Britten’s setting of words by the eccentric 18th century writer, Christopher Smart. Written while he was an inmate in an asylum, the poem takes joy in the way different creatures, in their individual ways, worship the Lord. Britten does, by way of contrast, include a section of the poem in which Smart reflects on his own hardships, but he foresees deliverance, and the work ends by glorying in the way various instruments praise God before gathering into a final Hallelujah.

The SBC, conducted by our Director of Music, Ian Crawford, will be joined by soloists: Stephanie Guidera (mezzo-soprano) and Stuart O’Hara (baritone) and will be accompanied by Stephen Hargreaves on the organ.

Holy Trinity Church, Hoghton Street, Southport PR9 0TE.

Tickets £10 from members of the choir or ring 01704 540097.