Join us at 2.30pm on Sunday May 5 at First Presbyterian Church as we travel through the centuries with some of England's most famous composers (and one interloper) ranging from Byrd to Britten. The concert also features a guest chamber music group from James Hargest College.
Highlights include the first madrigal in English ever published by an English composer, Thomas Morley in 1594, called April is in My Mistress' Face, William Byrd’s Ave Verum Corpus, favourite English folk songs arranged by well-known composers including Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughan William and an amusing number by Britten about a bee.
Some works are performed by smaller groups from the choir, including the beautiful and popular duet Pie Jesu by Andrew Lloyd-Webber, and an aria considered one of the most beautiful ever written - Purcell's When I am Laid in Earth. A quartet will sing John Wilbye’s Adieu sweet Amaryllis, whose score proclaims that “Here in less than 50 bars are all the best features of the English madrigal: sensitivity to words, contrast, contrapuntal pattern, and delicate harmonies.” Join us for an afternoon of discovering more musical gems - and some curiosities...