Classical and Jazz: Latest News > March 17
Published: 17 March 2011
by SEBASTIAN TAYLOR
IT'S always difficult for amateur choirs to decide whether to roll out the hardy perennials or go for something more unusual.
Choir members like to sing crowd-pullers like Handel’s Messiah, Mendelssohn’s Elijah and the Mozart Requiem. But it’s always good to refresh singers’ enthusiasm by tackling works not on the “sing it again” list.
There are some interesting programmes coming up over the next few weeks. The Camden Chamber Choir is adopting a novel approach to its concert on Saturday (March 19), at St Mary-the-Virgin, Primrose Hill. It is singing “The A B C of Italian Music” – works by composers with surnames starting with A B and C, including Anerio (both Felice and Giomanni), Battistini and Cherubini.
The North Camden Chorus is delivering a mixed bag at its concert on Saturday March 26, at St Mary Brookfield, Dartmouth Park, near The Palmerston on Dartmouth Park Hill. Faure’s ever-popular Requiem (in John Rutter’s orchestration) opens the programme to be followed by a Magnificat attributed to Pergolesi and folk song arrangements by Percy Grainger.
CityChorus continues its innovative programming on Friday, April 1, at St Sepulchre-without-Newgate, Holborn Viaduct, with music with a maternal theme for Mothering Sunday weekend. Sacred music includes Stabat Mater settings by Pergolesi and Humphrey Clucas and works by Stanford, Bach-Counod, Palestrina and Stanford.
There’ll also be secular songs of praise of mothers, and some in frustration, everything from traditional lullabies, spirituals and madrigals, through Schubert, Elgar and Brahms to classic melodies from stage and screen. That’s pretty unusual, you have to admit.
– Camden Chamber Choir concert: see Saturday listings