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Details
St Michael's Church
South Grove
Highgate
London
N6 6BJ
England
Programme
Edward Elgar – Sea Pictures (arr. for choir by D Fraser)
Herbert Howells – Like as the Hart
Pablo Casals – O Vos Omnes
Benjamin Britten – Prelude and Fugue on a Theme of Vittoria
Ronald Corp – Missa Andalucia (World Premiere)
Performers
Edward Batting – organ
Magid El-Bushra – countertenor
Ronald Corp – Conductor
Highgate Choral Society
Programme Note
HCS’s May concert programme is a scintillating mix of English and Spanish music, reflecting the choir’s forthcoming tour to Seville and Córdoba.
Elgar’s Sea Pictures sets to music five poems about the sea, including one by Elgar’s wife Alice. The song cycle was composed mainly in 1899 and received its first performance the same year. Originally for contralto voice and piano quintet, HCS will sing the sparkling arrangement for choir and orchestra by Donald Fraser.
Ronald Corp’s Missa Andalucia is a new HCS commission that will receive first performances in Córdoba’s famous cathedral-mosque and two churches in Seville, as part of the choir’s tour in early May. It quotes themes from works by the sixteenth century composers Morales, Guerrero and Lobo, all of whom were born in Seville.
The Spanish theme continues with two outstanding unaccompanied sacred motets for choir and organ - O Vos Omnes by the twentieth century Spanish cellist and composer Pablo Casals and Ecce Sacerdos by the sixteenth century Spanish composer Victoria - and with evocative Spanish songs, including works by Granada and Falla, and Spanish lute songs, sung by counter-tenor Magid El-Bushra.
Complementing these Spanish pieces are two gems of twentieth century English music for choir and organ - Edward Elgar’s Give Unto The Lord from Psalm 29, and Herbert Howells’ Like as the Hart Desireth the Waterbrooks from Psalm 42 - as well as Benjamin Britten’s Prelude and Fugue on a Theme of Vittoria for solo organ.
