Sir Karl Jenkins
The Armed Man: a Mass for Peace
Sunday 7 February 2021 at 7.30pm
 
 
  Date:  Sunday 7 February 2021
  Time: 7.30pm
  Venue:  Royal & Derngate, Guildhall Road, Northampton, NN1 1DP
 
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The Northampton Bach Choir are delighted to be performing with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Adrian Partington again, this time to perform Sir Karl Jenkins’s popular and moving The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace.



The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace was given its premiere in the Autumn of 2000 at the Royal Albert Hall, and a year later, the work entered the Classic FM Hall of Fame. Over the next few years, it climbed rapidly into the Top Ten, where it’s remained as the nation’s favourite piece of contemporary music. Since then it has had nearly three thousand performances, but this will be the first time the Northampton Bach Choir has performed the complete work in concert*.

Many sections of the work are worthy of close examination – not least the Agnus Dei and the Sanctus – but it is the haunting Benedictus that captivates listeners to the greatest extent, leaving them begging for more. Jenkins’s writing for soulful cello is sublime (the soloist in the first performance was Julian Lloyd Webber), and the heavenly choral accompaniment truly transports you to another place.



Never one to define himself by one set of beliefs, Jenkins uses all sorts of inspirations for the text of The Armed Man, including the Muslim call to prayer, the sixteenth-century L’Homme armé’ Mass tradition, and ancient religious texts from a number of sources.

* the choir performed the Choral Suite from the work on 11 November 2018 at an event commemorating the First World War heroes of Northamptonshire, and have sung the complete work with chamber orchestra and soloists in two “Come and Sing” days in 2011 and 2014.
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Programme:

Northampton Bach Choir
with Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Conductor - Adrian Partington