2009 Season
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Saturday 21 March St Alphege Church, Oldfield Lane, Bath • 7.30pm
Croce 400
- Giovanni Croce (d.1609) Missa 6 vocum
- Knut Nystedt Miserere mei; Peace I leave with you
- James MacMillan Tradiderunt me
- Andrea Gabrieli Maria stabat ad monumentum
- Giovanni Gabrieli Miserere mei
Giovanni Croce spent almost his entire career at St Mark’s Venice, ending up as maestro di cappella (Monteverdi’s predecessor-but-one). We celebrate his achievement on the 400th anniversary of his death. Croce’s wonderful six- part mass provides a splendid introduction to his sacred music, which deserves to be much better known. Alongside the mass we sing a variety of seasonal music: motets by two of Croce’s best-known contemporaries, and works by two important living composers we have regularly featured – Knut Nystedt’s amazingly wrought yet deeply expressive setting of Psalm 51, and James MacMillan’s recent setting of a Good Friday responsory, written in his own unique, highly dramatic yet immediately appealing style.
Tickets £10, concessions £9 from Bath Festivals Box Office • 01225 463362
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Friday 1 May St Mary's Church, Bathwick • 7.45pm
Bath Sing for Life
Paragon singers joins with another local choir as part of the Bath Sing for Life weekend – programme to be advised.
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Friday 22 May Party in the City • from early evening
Bath International Music Festival
Come and find paragon singers in one of many city centre venues as they take part in the opening night of the 2009 Bath International Music Festival.
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Saturday 4th July The Chase, Winsley (close to the Village Hall) • 6:00pm
Music in a Summer Garden
- English and American music from the 16th to 20th centuries.
- Readings by Paul Batson
- In aid of Winsley Village Hall
To take place in the garden if fine, inside the house if wet.
Tickets £8, concessions £9 from 01225 722 113 / 723 090 or available on the door
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Saturday 17 October St Alphege Church, Oldfield Lane, Bath • 7.30pm
Song of Songs
- Hildegard Favus distillans
- Palestrina Surge propera
- Walton Set me as a seal
- Croce Veni in hortum meum
- Grandi O quam tu pulchra es (S solo)
- Palestrina Dilectus meus
- Clemens non Papa Ego flos campi
- Ivan Moody Descendi in ortum meum
- Palestrina Quam pulchri sunt
- chant Jam hiems transiit
- Palestrina Veni dilecti me
- Dunstable Quam pulchra est
- De Rore Descendi in hortum meum
- Lucrezia Vizzana Sonet vox tua (S solo)
- Palestrina Duo ubera tua
- Skempton Rise up, my love
- Victoria Vidi speciosam
- Palestrina Surge, amica mea
The lyrical, highly sensual poetry of the Song of Songs – part Christian allegory, part oriental love poem – has inspired hundreds of musical settings from the middle ages to the present.
Palestrina devoted a complete book of 29 motets to it, investing his serene skill with more-than-usual intensity. Eight of these short motets form the core of the concert, contrasted with equally fine pieces by some of his great contemporaries and a selection of modern composers. Interspersed through the programme are wonderful settings for solo voices and continuo from the early baroque.
The concert begins with an ecstatic responsory by the 12th- century visionary, Hildegard of Bingen.
Tickets £10, concessions £9 from Bath Festivals Box Office • 01225 463362
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Saturday 12 December Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford on Avon • 7.30pm
Christmas in Montserrat
Following our exploration of the exotic world of 17th-century South America last year, we present an equally festive selection of Spanish music. Its dancing rhythms, sumptuous textures and contrastingly simple beauty reflect the reciprocal influence of the Spanish colonies. The programme revolves round movements from the magnificent 12-part mass for voices and instruments by Joan Cererols, maestro di capilla at the great monastery of Montserrat – characterful music which belies his monk’s calling! Also included in the programme are lively villancicos by Cererols, Flecha and Rimonte, motets by Morales and Guerrero, Victoria’s splendid twelve-voice Magnificat and a grand, 16-part Venetian-style psalm setting by Romero.
- Faye Newton soprano
- Bradford Baroque Band
Tickets £16, concessions £15, subscriptions £14 from Wiltshire Music Centre • 01225 860 100
