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Details
St Martin of Tours Church
Church Street
Epsom
Surrey
KT17 4PX
England
Programme
Anton Bruckner – Mass no.2 in E minor, WAB 27
Igor Stravinsky – Mass
Peter Burton – The heavens declare the glory of God (psalm 19)
Jonathan Dove – Figures in the Garden
Performers
Jack Apperley – Conductor
Epsom Chamber Choir
Chameleon Arts Wind Ensemble
Other concerts in this Series (+)
Programme Note
VOICES, WIND AND BRASS RING TO THE RAFTERS
"Religious music without religion is almost always vulgar." So said Stravinsky. His Mass, completed in 1948, is one of two masses to be performed at the (very religious) St Martin’s Church, Epsom by Epsom Chamber Choir with their conductor, Jack Apperly and the Chameleon Arts Wind Ensemble.
Stravinsky’s Mass was inspired by a collection of Mozart masses which he found at a second-hand store in Los Angeles. He wrote, “As I played through these rococo-operatic sweets-of-sin, I knew I had to write a Mass of my own, but a real one" meaning one composed for liturgical use rather than for concert performance.
The second mass, Bruckner’s Mass in E minor, was commissioned by the Bishop of Linz Cathedral. Preceding the modernist Stravinsky Mass by some eighty years, it is more romantic in style, based strongly on old-church music tradition, particularly old Gregorian style singing with the opening Kyrie almost entirely made up of unaccompanied singing in eight parts. Although different in style, both masses are unusually accompanied by wind and brass ensemble.
The choir will also give the first performance of a commission of Psalm 19, “The heavens declare the glory of God” from their own talented tenor and composer Peter Burton. The Chameleon Arts Wind Ensemble get the spotlight to themselves for Jonathan Dove’s “Figures in the Garden”.
