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John Rutter - Gloria |
The English Arts Chorale |
The English Arts Chorale is delighted to be back in the Chapel of St John's College, Cambridge, on Saturday 6th October with a refreshing and exciting mix of choral and organ music.
In previous concerts at St John's EAC has presented Bach, Rachmaninov, Fauré, and Duruflé, to much acclaim. This year, their programme contains music by three very different twentieth century composers: Ralph Vaughan Williams, Leonard Bernstein and John Rutter.
Bernstein, probably best known for his stage musicals, was commissioned by the Southern Cathedrals Festival in 1965 to write a setting of some of the Psalms. The work, one of his most overtly Jewish compositions, is sung in Hebrew, and is frequently used as an anthem in English Anglican cathedrals. It is both exciting and heart-rending, with its unusual rhythms and harmonies reminiscent of West Side Story, which was composed eight years earlier.
Rutter is well known to all lovers of choral music. His setting of the Gloria, an early work composed in 1974, uses texts from the Ordinary of the Mass and is exalted, devotional and jubilant in turn. The work is divided into three movements roughly corresponding to symphonic structure. The two outer movements are full of joy and hope, with the central movement being soft and more introspective.
The English Arts Chorale will be conducted by its founder Leslie Olive, and will be accompanied by Ian le Grice on the magnificent organ at St John's.
Ticket information is here