NDR Chor
Purcell / Elgar / Britten / MacMillan
Purcell / Elgar / Britten / MacMillan
To mark the 75th anniversary of the NDR Chor, Klaas Stok and his choir devote a concert to the masters of English choral music: Purcell, Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Britten and McMillan. The programme ranges from Baroque music to the present day. As in one of the choir's very first concerts in 1946, the evening opens with a chorus from Purcell's »Dido and Aeneas«. Benjamin Britten's »Hymn to St Cecilia« sings the praises of music as such. And Ralph Vaughan Williams's Mass in G minor was the first big a cappella setting of the Mass with an unmistakable English timbre to be written since the works of William Byrd in the 16th century. The concert closes with a contemporary work: James MacMillan's »Laudi alla Vergine Maria«, where highly ornamented solos alternate with lyrical passages and more freely written sections. The Scottish composer took the text from Dante's »Divine Comedy«.
NDR Chor
direction Klaas Stok
Henry Purcell
O give thanks unto the Lord Z33
Jehovah quam multi sunt hostes Z 135
Dido's lament
Edward Elgar
Death on the Hills für gemischten Chor op. 72
The Fountain für gemischten Chor op. 71
Benjamin Britten
Hymn to St. Cecilia op. 27
James MacMillan
Laudi alla Vergine Maria
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Messe g-Moll
Promoter: NDR