In the Summer of 2021 we hope to commence our planned series The
Great Oratorios with Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and continuing
later that year with Handel’s Messiah. However, the present
progress of the Covid-19 epidemic means that this Spring's
performance of Haydn’s The Creation has been rescheduled for
Spring 2022.
In the first months of 2021 we will continue to rehearse in our Home
Choir on Zoom, then hope to swiftly move to hybrid rehearsals where
some are able to rehearse in person, with others joining in “live”
via webcast. From that point we shall move back to normal rehearsals
and at that point we will schedule the date of our Spring 2021
performance. We are most grateful to our friends and supporters, our
partners and members, and to the Friends of the Northampton Bach
Choir, for their continued support and patience through these
difficult times.
When we return in January 2021, we will be preparing a programme of
music by Haydn, Mozart, and their contemporaries, for that Spring
concert, which is flexible so that we can perform no matter what the
restrictions in place dictate. The major work in the programme is
Gatti’s Schöpfungsmesse (Creation Mass) in which the composer
sensitively adapts entire movements from Haydn’s The Creation
to the liturgical text of the Mass. Mozart and Haydn are represented
in two other famous Latin texts, the Magnificat and Te
Deum respectively, as well as Haydn’s dramatic motet, Insanæ
et vanæ curæ (which has nothing to do with Insane and
vain curates!). The famous Haydn’s (Franz Joseph) brother (Johann
Michael) is also represented in his beautiful Nunc dimittis.
The Mozart Magnificat and J. M. Haydn Nunc dimittis,
together with F. J. Haydn’s chorus from The Creation, The
Heavens are Telling, also form the major works in the choir’s
visits to sing Choral Evensong at Southwell Minster and Lincoln
Cathedral later in the year.
Programme:
Northampton Bach Choir
Conductor - Lee Dunleavy
Schöpfungsmesse - Luigi Gatti (1740-1817)
Insanæ et vanæ curæ - F. J. Haydn (1732-1809)
Magnificat, K. 193 - W. A. Mozart (1756-91)
Nunc dimittis, M. 355 - J. M Haydn (1737-1806)
Te Deum in C “Marie Therese" - F. J. Haydn (1732-1809) |
