FUTURE CONCERTS
Dates for diaries are:
- 16 November - Autumn Concert
- 5 December - Carol Concert to benefit Paul’s Cancer Support Centre
- 11 December - Carol Concert at Fulham Palace Chapel
- 14 December – Charity Christmas Carol Concert
- 21 March - Spring Concert
- 13 June - Summer Concert
ABOUT THE CURRENT CONCERT
Our November 2019 concert combines two greats of English classical music, separated by over 350 years but brought together by Fulham Camerata at Holy Cross Church on Saturday November 16 in an inspiring choral programme.
The works will be performed with three guest instrumentalists in addition to our gifted new keyboard accompanist, Will Fielding.
Opening with a selection of Henry Purcell’s finest anthems from the 17th century, the concert moves on to John Rutter’s beautifully melodic, contemporary Requiem in seven movements.
The works will be performed with three guest instrumentalists in addition to our gifted new keyboard accompanist, Will Fielding.
Opening with a selection of Henry Purcell’s finest anthems from the 17th century, the concert moves on to John Rutter’s beautifully melodic, contemporary Requiem in seven movements.
Henry Purcell’s anthems, composed in the 17th century Baroque period are part of more than 100 secular and sacred songs in his short but extremely prolific life. He tragically died young at the age of 36, leaving behind him a wealth of compositions: odes, fantasias, monumental theatre music, sacred songs and full anthems, including his well known My heart is inditing performed in Westminster Abbey at the coronation of James II in 1685.Purcell’s legacy was that although he learnt from his Italian and French contemporaries he had an individuality that created a uniquely English form of baroque music. This marked him as one of the most original composers in Europe. A London lad, who lived a stone’s throw from Westminster Abbey and attended Westminster school he was organist at the Abbey by the time he was 20 and was buried there sixteen years later.
Fulham Camerata will be singing eight of his anthems, both secular and sacred. They include They that go down to the sea in ships, written to give thanks for the lucky escape of King Charles II from shipwreck as well as the fresh and harmonious My beloved spake. This is one of Purcell’s earliest surviving compositions. Hard to believe that it was written in Purcell’s teenage years, with expressive lyrics from The Song of Solomon, it is brimming with celebration on the joy of the passing of winter and heralding the spring flowers and ‘the singing of birds is come’. These works will give chance for our Choral Scholars to solo in an array of verse-anthems, in particular Sebastian Johnson in a piece written especially for a singer who had the vast range required.
Purcell’s influence on music has continued through the centuries. He heavily influenced the work of Benjamin Britten and found his way into the music of The Who. Pete Townshend pays tribute to him and claims that Purcell’s harmonies influenced many of their most popular songs including I can see for miles and the 1969 classic Pinball Wizard.
Fulham Camerata will be singing eight of his anthems, both secular and sacred. They include They that go down to the sea in ships, written to give thanks for the lucky escape of King Charles II from shipwreck as well as the fresh and harmonious My beloved spake. This is one of Purcell’s earliest surviving compositions. Hard to believe that it was written in Purcell’s teenage years, with expressive lyrics from The Song of Solomon, it is brimming with celebration on the joy of the passing of winter and heralding the spring flowers and ‘the singing of birds is come’. These works will give chance for our Choral Scholars to solo in an array of verse-anthems, in particular Sebastian Johnson in a piece written especially for a singer who had the vast range required.
Purcell’s influence on music has continued through the centuries. He heavily influenced the work of Benjamin Britten and found his way into the music of The Who. Pete Townshend pays tribute to him and claims that Purcell’s harmonies influenced many of their most popular songs including I can see for miles and the 1969 classic Pinball Wizard.
John Rutter conducted the first performance of his glorious Requiem on 13 October 1985 in Dallas, Texas, at Lovers' Lane United Methodist Church. It bears the dedication in memoriam L.F.R., a reference to the death of John Rutter's father in the previous year.
This rich and melodic Requiem in seven movements is a musical setting of parts of the Latin Requiem with added psalms and biblical verses in English. The 6th movement is his beautiful rendition of The Lord is my Shepherd, which Rutter had written as an anthem in 1976. Wonderful lyrics of comfort and hope where the valley of the shadow of death becomes an expression for trust in God and hope for dwelling in his house forever.
Rutter’s Requiem is melodic and memorable and while many composers no longer primarily link music to melody, he defiantly seems to buck that trend.
John Rutter, one of the most successful of all living composers and conductors describes himself as deeply spiritual but not particularly religious. Educated at Clare College Cambridge Rutter was later director of music there and founded the Cambridge singers. Among his sacred choral pieces are his numerous, popular Christmas carols, both original and new arrangements of existing ones, some at the request of the BBC. He memorably said “I love Christmas…..I still feel just for those few magic days a year, that we have the world as it might be”.
This rich and melodic Requiem in seven movements is a musical setting of parts of the Latin Requiem with added psalms and biblical verses in English. The 6th movement is his beautiful rendition of The Lord is my Shepherd, which Rutter had written as an anthem in 1976. Wonderful lyrics of comfort and hope where the valley of the shadow of death becomes an expression for trust in God and hope for dwelling in his house forever.
Rutter’s Requiem is melodic and memorable and while many composers no longer primarily link music to melody, he defiantly seems to buck that trend.
John Rutter, one of the most successful of all living composers and conductors describes himself as deeply spiritual but not particularly religious. Educated at Clare College Cambridge Rutter was later director of music there and founded the Cambridge singers. Among his sacred choral pieces are his numerous, popular Christmas carols, both original and new arrangements of existing ones, some at the request of the BBC. He memorably said “I love Christmas…..I still feel just for those few magic days a year, that we have the world as it might be”.