The English Arts Chorale at St John's

Rachmaninov: Vespers Lauridsen: O magnum mysterium Lauridsen: Lux Aeterna

The English Arts Chorale Leslie Olive - Conductor Ian Le Grice - organ

On Saturday 17^th October 2009 The English Arts Chorale will be performing a concert of Russian and American music in the chapel of St John's College, Cambridge. The concert, which starts at 8.00pm, is a tribute to Kenneth Scott, late Fellow of St John's, and will raise funds for the McKean Fund, which supports the composition of new music.

The concert, which will be conducted by the Chorale's founder, Leslie Olive, comprises two works, both written in the twentieth century with suggestions of music of earlier eras.

Morten Lauridsen, an American, was born in 1943. Musicologist and conductor Nick Strimple describes Lauridsen's music as probing and serene, and the composer himself as " .. the only American composer who can be called a mystic".

Among his vast output of sacred choral music Lux Aeterna, composed in 1997, is one of the best known. This is a five-movement quasi-Requiem which contains elements from the traditional Latin requiem combined with other texts.

One reviewer said this work " .. begins with a bare rumble and builds through minor-key severity into glorious, radiant openness, with alleluias that seem to split the heavens with their rapturous joy".

This work suits the transparent quality of The English Arts Chorale, and they are confident the acoustic in St John's College chapel will show this work to best advantage.

The main work in the programme is Rachmaninov's wonderful composition the All-Night Vigil, better known as the Vespers. Composed in less than two weeks in 1915, this unaccompanied work presents some of Rachmaninov's most intricate choral writing. Parts of it seem so dense it is hard to believe the complex harmonies are produced by voices alone. This evocative music speaks to the heart in a pure and direct manner. It is sung in Russian.

These two works ably fulfil The English Arts Chorale's Mission Statement: To share with everyone the profound human and spiritual experience of great music.

Tickets, priced at £14 (students £8), are available from The Corn Exchange, Cambridge (telephone 01223 357851), online here, or by telephone on 01737 762097.