Details
St Andrew's Church
Maple Road
Surbiton
London
KT6 4DS
England
Programme
Franz Schubert – Four PartSongs
Bob Chilcott – Canticles of Light
Morten Lauridsen – Sure on this shining night
Samuel Barber – Sure on this shining night, Op.13 no.3
Performers
Andrew Griffiths – Conductor
Gavin Roberts – piano
Kingston Choral Society
Programme Note
KCS Promises a Shining Night
On 24 June at Kingston Choral Society (KCS) returns to St Andrew’s Church, Surbiton, KT6 4DS to present a midsummer concert celebrating and reflecting on the beauty and consolation of light.
The concert features two musical adaptations of text from a poem by James Agee. US composers Samuel Barber and Morten Lauridsen both named their beautiful songs Sure on this Shining Night. Bob Chilcott’s triptych Canticles of Light completes the first half. With its opening of tolling bells, this piece is darker in character. Parts one and two are hauntingly lovely prayers for comfort through the night. Brightness returns in part three of the, as a hymn to morning and renewal.
After the interval the choir and musicians will celebrate the songs and piano music of Schubert.
In a real treat for the audience, the highly acclaimed KCS regular accompanist, Gavin Roberts, will be joined by their multi—talented Musical Director, Andrew Griffiths, for Schubert piano duets.
The choir will then return for the finale. The spirited Four Part Songs are among the best of Schubert’s lesser-known repertory for mixed voices. Light – both literal in the ‘splendid rays’ of the sun – and figurative, as the joys of life, are again a central motif.
Be sure to join Kingston Choral Society for what will be a sparkling midsummer occasion.
