The augmented choir of St. Michael’s Church will give its 23rd concert on Good Friday, March 25th 2016, at 7.30pm.
This year the music is by English composers of the 17th and 20th centuries. The main work is the Requiem by John Rutter. It was written in 1985 and is dedicated to his father who died the previous year. The composer has said that he was influenced by the example of Fauré, and the style is generally contemplative rather than dramatic. The louder passages have echoes of the choral writing of Herbert Howells.
In the first half of the concert there are two verse anthems by Richard Nicholson and Orlando Gibbons. In a verse anthem passages for solo voices alternate with those for full choir. This form became popular at the start of the 17th century and later became the model for the first English operas by John Blow and Henry Purcell. There will also be organ music by Gibbons, Thomas Tomkins and Kenneth Leighton.
The soprano soloist in the Requiem will be Joanna Hodgson, and she will also be heard in the verse sections of the anthems together with other members of the choir. The concert will be conducted by Stephen Holmes, and accompanied by Sylvia Ardron on the organ.
There will be a retiring collection in aid of church funds.