Next Concert – Saturday 11 April 7.30pm
St Albans Cathedral St Albans AL1 1BY
St Albans Chamber Choir welcomes the Wormser Kantorei for the 24th joint concert in the long friendship between these two choirs, which have been meeting biennially alternately here and in Germany since 1969. The cities of St Albans and Worms were twinned in 1957 and share a Roman heritage, medieval importance and magnificent cathedrals.
Composed in thanksgiving for his wife Constanze’s recovery from illness, Mozart’s Great C minor Mass was first performed in Salzburg in 1783. The work is on a grand scale, with virtuoso, quasi-operatic, numbers for the two soprano soloists, and two four-part choirs.
St Albans Chamber Choir with Wormser Kantorei and Amadeus Chamber Orchestra
John Gibbons and Stefan Merkelbach (conductors)
Kim Sheehan (soprano) Cecilia Bailey (soprano)
Oliver Martin-Smith (tenor) Jonathan Saunders (bass)
Equally scintillating is Mozart’s Exsultate, jubilate, written ten years earlier for a famous castrato. Now a showpiece of the solo soprano repertoire, it is well-known for its final movement, a jubilant Alleluia. The final Classical masterwork in this programme is Haydn’s Te Deum: commissioned by the Austrian Empress and premiered in 1800 before a distinguished audience including Admiral Nelson and Lady Hamilton, this choral setting bears all the hallmarks of a composer at the peak of his creative powers, full of brilliant chromaticism and verve. In contrast, the concert also includes the orchestral Tragic Interlude (1936) by the notable British composer William Alwyn (1905-1985). Tickets: reserved £25, £18, £14; unreserved £10 (Accompanied children half price; Students unreserved only half price) Cathedral Box Office: 01727 890290 or online www.stalbanscathedral.org