Music to please everyone in concert
The Linden Singers’ next concert, Gloria, in St Matthew’s Church, Hastings, at 2.30pm on Sunday, November 25, promises an eclectic mix of music with something for everyone.
Directed by founding-conductor Basil Brooker, the first half of the programme will be devoted entirely to Antonio Vivaldi’s famous choral work, Gloria in D, composed in Venice around 1715.
Vivaldi, a priest, music teacher and virtuoso violist, spent much of his life working at Venice’s Ospedale della Pieta`, a convent, orphanage, and music school established in the 14th century as a charitable institution for orphans and abandoned girls.
Globally the piece remained relatively unknown until its revival in 1939 by Alfredo Casella for the Vivaldi Week celebrations in Siena, but it now enjoys great popularity in church services and concerts, having been recorded on almost 100 CDs.
Accompanied by the Cathedral Strings leader Norma Smith, which regularly performs with the Waiapu Cathedral Choir in Napier, and organist Elizabeth Curtis, the Gloria in D also features local soprano soloists Kerry Tattersall and Natalie Stent, and counter tenor Anthony Tattersall.
The second half of the programme will feature several 19th century colonial folk songs for SATB choir, composed by retired Napier Anglican priest Bill Bennett.
Three songs, the Sweater, Soon may the Wellerman come and Cargo Workers — come from Neil Colquhoun’s Song of a Young Country, an anthology of New Zealand Folk Music. A bracket of items in a lighter mood, including Thomas Ravenscroft’s madrigal, In the merry spring, The Goslings, The Teddy Bears’ Picnic and Harrison Oxley’s arrangement of the part song Soldier, soldier won’t you marry me, plus a bracket of Christmas music, including Joseph and the angel, will conclude the programme.
Door sales admission $25, seniors $20, children $5