Monteverdi 1610 Vespers - Deus in Adjutorium, Ave Maris Stella, Magnificat Handel Nisi Dominus The King shall rejoice Dering Factum est Silentium Humfrey Hear O Heavens Duncan Saunderson (conductor) Sally Dunkley & Carys Lane (soprano) Stephen Taylor (countertenor) Guy Cutting & Nick Hewlett (tenor) George Coltart (bass) with The Summertown Players led by Janet Froomes Full Programme Excerpt from Monteverdi's Vespers Photos... Photos courtesy of,...
15th May 2010 ~ St. Michael's Church Purcell Jehova, quam multi sunt hostes mei Funeral Sentences for Queen Mary II Thou knowest Lord Voluntary in G (Organ) Stanford Heraclitus Parry My Delight and Thy Delight Ode on St. Cecilia's Day Duncan Saunderson (conductor) Carys Lane (soprano) Stephen Burrows (countertenor) Guy Cutting (tenor) Tom Edwards (bass) Julian Littlewood (piano & organ) Full programme here......
Handel's Messiah Duncan Saunderson conductor Carys Lane soprano, Stephen Burrows countertenor, Ben Alden tenor, George Coltart bass with the Summertown Players on period instruments, led by Caroline Balding Full programme... Excerpts... Photos... Photos courtesy of, and copyright to Malcolm Chandler. Final rehearsal - Julian at the harpsichord Tenors and basses rehearsing (and err, not watching the conductor fully!) The soloists get put...
2 July 2011 ~ Sheldonian Theatre 50th anniversary concert Handel: My Heart is Inditing, Foundling Hospital Anthem Mendelssohn: Ave Maria Brahms: movements from Ein Deutsches Requiem Philip Moore: Three Oxford Songs (new commission) and part-songs by Tippett, Parry, Brahms, Copland and Grayston Ives ~*~ Duncan Saunderson conductor Carys Lane soprano, Helen Parker soprano, Stephen Burrows countertenor, James Gilchrist tenor, George Coltart bass with the Summertown Players led by Simon Jones and Julian Littlewood & Ben Holden piano Full Programme To celebrate...
Bach's Mass in B Minor Duncan Saunderson conductor Helen Ashby, soprano Kate Ashby, soprano Stephen Burrows, countertenor Guy Cutting, tenor George Coltart, bass with the Summertown Players on period instruments, led by Simon Jones Full programme... Click here for Oxford Times review Excerpts...
“A friend took me to your concert – and what a treat… The Stanford Songs of the Sea were a joy and really suited the choir… I almost expected Duncan Saunderson to turn round and ask us all to sing… Everyone in the choir looked happy, well-rehearsed. My friend and I went home relaxed. Thank you all...
"A tour de force! Well, what can I say? It was amazing, wonderful, especially the second part. I really had not expected anything like that and I wish I could sing!"
"Absolutely fantastic! It was great to hear such a wide range of music sung by such a good choir. The requiem and Dyson in D were particularly excellent"
Duncan Saunderson conductor Louise Wayman and Laura Ashby, sopranos Stephen Burrows and Alexander Chance, countertenors Tom Kelly and Alex Clissold-Jones, tenors Patrick Edmond, bass with the Summertown Players, on period instruments. Full programme Excerpts (From Haydn's Nelson Mass) from the Credo in unum Deum
Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle, written around 1863, is neither short nor solemn. It is so called because of its economy of scale, with the orchestra banished, and its formality of a sung Mass. However, Rossini was the greatest writer of comic opera and his humour and gift for melody is present on every page. The German composer Giacomo Meyerbeer has been described as perhaps the most successful stage composer of the 19th century. A friend of Rossini's, he attended the first two performances of the Messe and was greatly affected. His beautiful but under performed Pater Noster was written in 1857, the same year Rossini's extremely charming motet O Salutaris Hostia was written.
Summertown Choral Society's Summer concert included two popular masses, as well as Handel and Verdi choruses. The Krönungsmesse (Coronation Mass in C Major, KV 317), was so called because it was first performed either for Francis I of Austria or Leopold II in Prague, is one of the most popular of Mozart's 17 Mass settings, composed in 1779. It is famous for the Agnus Dei, one of Mozart's most sublime sacred soprano solos. Schubert's Mass in G was written in a week at the age of 18. His genius for melody, through simplicity, is evident and the Mass has become one of his most popular sacred works.
The Christmas Oratorio by J.S. Bach (1685-1750) is a series of cantatas originally written to be performed in the two most important churches in Leipzig on six different days between Christmas 1734 and the feast of Epiphany in 1735. It incorporates some of the finest movements of several secular cantatas that Bach had already written as birthday or other celebrations. (This performance featured cantatas 1-3 only; cantatas 4-6 will be performed at our concert in January 2017).
