Beyond the Chamber

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Nick Murza

Beyond the Chamber

The Surrey Hills choirs will hold their annual summer concert on Sunday 28th June, 7pm at St Nicolas Church, Bury Street, Guildford. With a change of direction to their usual concert formula this year, the two award-winning choirs will present Vivaldi’s ‘Gloria’ accompanied by string quartet, oboe and trumpet, two choral favourites by Karl Jenkins and conclude with a mix of songs from all styles and eras from Renaissance polyphony to Bob Dylan.

During his time in Venice, Vivaldi directed music at the Ospedale della Pieta convent and wrote many of his compositions there, including the ‘Gloria’. It is widely believed that the ‘Gloria’ would have been sung and accompanied by the female performers at the convent and the Surrey Hills choirs will demonstrate how this would have sounded with some movements being sung by the ladies’ choir, the Surrey Hills Singers. In contrast, other movements will be sung by the mixed voices of the Surrey Hills Chamber Choir. This juxtaposition of forces is probably a first for this work and will be interesting and refreshing to hear them side by side

Vivaldi’s music is so light, uplifting and joyous, the perfect tonic for a summer’s evening. However, there is much else still to enjoy at this concert as the choirs join forces to perform the popular ‘Adiemus’ by Karl Jenkins, the first song from the collection Songs of Sanctuary. ‘Adiemus’ uses nonsense syllables as Jenkins prioritised the sonority and colour of the music. The song became a household name when it was used for the Delta Air Lines advert in 1994. The second song by Jenkins is the beautiful ‘Benedictus’ from The Armed Man. With its beautiful lyrical opening and contrasting joyous middle section, the song is most known for its stunning cello solo, which will be played by Sarah Winterbotham.

The second half of the concert features a mixed bag of styles from the Surrey Hills Singers that will appeal to everyone – the American folk song ‘Let the circle be unbroken’, the stunning English folk song ‘The water of Tyne’, and two well-known songs from musical theatre ‘Can’t help lovin’ dat man’ from Showboat and ‘The Rhythm of Life’ from Sweet Charity.

The Surrey Hills Chamber Choir also has a lovely selection of songs that will appeal to many, including the calm polyphony of ‘Stetit Angelus’ by Palestrina, the powerful ‘Christus est stella’ by Will Todd, the up tempo modern spiritual ‘Nothin’ gonna stumble’ by Greg Gilpin, the English folk song ‘Scarborough Fair’ and Anna Lapwood’s new arrangement of Bob Dylan’s ‘Make you feel my love’.

If you love choral music, then this concert comes highly recommended. With their last three concerts a sell-out, don’t delay in visiting the website to secure your tickets. Tickets go on sale on the 8th May and will be available from www.singsurreyhills.com. Tickets are £20 for adults and £5 for under 16s.