St Martin-in-the-Fields
This Endris Night: Christmas with VOCES8 invites you into a journey through the wonder of the Nativity, where chant and polyphony meet the warmth of familiar carols and festive song. The programme traces a path from reflection to celebration, echoing the story of a single, extraordinary night that changed the world. Sacred and secular voices intertwine, culminating in a sparkling finale of jazz and popular classics, offering a Christmas rich in joy.
Benjamin Britten lives! 50 years to the day since his death in 1976, the Britten Sinfonia and the BBC Singers unleash the irrepressible life-force of Britten’s St Nicholas, the story of the saint who inspired the figure of Santa Claus.
Prison breaks, pickled boys and adventures at sea…just don’t call him Santa. The story of Saint Nicholas is wilder and more wonderful than you think, and in his joyous cantata, Benjamin Britten retold it in some of the brightest, boldest and most colourful music he ever wrote. What better way to mark the 50th anniversary of Britten’s death (to the day) than with a choral masterpiece that breaks all the rules? It’s never sounded more alive. Arvo Pärt’s atmospheric tribute launches a celebration of genius from the BBC Singers and Britten Sinfonia.
Big, bold and way ahead of their time, the Brandenburg Concertos are Bach at his absolute best. Taking the concerto grosso (‘big concerto’) to new heights, the Brandenburg’s pushed the limits of what an instrument can do, creating a high-octane set of works full of flashy passages. It’s Bach bending the rules, raising the bar and having some fun while doing it.
In this concert, London Mozart Players perform two of these Concertos, No.1 and No.4, alongside a handpicked mix of other Bach favourites, including his Concerto for Violin and Oboe.
To enhance your listening experience, St Martin’s will be transformed into a digital gallery in as bespoke, live projections fill the walls as the orchestra plays.
L’Orfeo: Monteverdi’s pioneering opera, brought to vibrant, heart-melting life by Robert Hollingworth and the virtuoso singers of I Fagiolini.
What better subject for a fledgling artform than the tragedy of Orpheus: the semi-divine musician, whose melodies charmed birds and beasts and could even (or so the poets say) soothe the torments of hell itself? Opera barely existed when Claudio Monteverdi composed L’Orfeo in 1607, and you can still sense the excitement, the freshness and the raw inspiration of an artform that was inventing itself on the hoof. It’s perfect, in other words, for Robert Hollingworth and I Fagiolini – the dazzlingly virtuosic vocal ensemble that thrives on the unpredictability, the emotion and the pure theatre of the baroque.
This concert is part of our 300th anniversary celebrations.
Handel loved Theodora more than any of his other oratorios, and with Iestyn Davies singing in this concert staging with the Monteverdi Choir, you’re about to hear why.
Would you die for faith – or for love? As the Roman authorities crack down on dissident Christians, the virtuous Theodora faces a brutal fate. Her devoted Didymus, meanwhile, must choose between the state, and both their souls. Handel rated his oratorio Theodora more highly than the Messiah, and this heartfelt tale of persecution and martyrdom has often been put on stage. For Christophe Rousset and The Monteverdi Choir it’s a masterpiece, and with a cast that stars Iestyn Davies as Didymus, this dramatised concert performance brings the best of both worlds to a work that Handel himself regarded as his favourite.
This concert is part of our 300th anniversary celebrations.
The BBC Singers, conducted by Krista Audere, perform Parry’s Songs of Farewell, his profoundly moving cycle of wartime laments for a lost age. Confronted by both the devastation of the First World War and by his own declining health, Parry poured his response into six luminous choral motets steeped in nostalgia and grief, and widely regarded as some of the most powerful music he ever wrote.
The first half of the concert looks to renewal and the natural world, pairing Caroline Shaw’s Companion Planting with one of Palestrina’s earliest works, his radiant Missa Sicut lilium inter spinas.
Finding Harmony: The King’s Singers celebrate St Martin-in-the-Fields’ 300th birthday with all their inimitable warmth and flair.
For 300 years, St Martin-in-the-Fields has been a byword for community – a venue that represents sanctuary and welcome. The King’s Singers don’t go back quite so far, but with more than five decades of joyous vocal music-making under their belt, this extraordinary vocal ensemble could hardly be better equipped to lead the celebrations. In tonight’s concert they trace a history that shows just how powerful singing together has been across the globe. It’s music that inspires unity, whether through songs that reflect the civil rights movement or celebration, and by the sheer joy of singing together in this beautiful and historic venue. Expect vocal classics old and new, plus a few surprises – all performed with that inimitable, life-affirming, King’s Singers swing.
This concert is part of our 300th anniversary celebrations.
In the final decade of his life, Mozart composed many of the works that define his legacy today. Settled in Vienna, he began to push at the edges of the Classical style, shaping a direction that would influence composers like Beethoven in the years to come.
In this programme, London Mozart Players explore some of Mozart’s latest and greatest works across both the symphonic and operatic repertoire. Joined by Roderick Williams and Sophie Bevan, they perform a selection of arias from The Magic Flute – completed just months before Mozart’s death – and The Marriage of Figaro.
Alongside these, LMP perform the ‘Jupiter’ Symphony, Mozart’s longest, largest and last contribution to his symphonic works. Bold and expansive, it paved innovative ways for what a Symphony could be and set a new benchmark for the musical generations that followed.
Poulenc’s wild and wonderful Organ Concerto raises the roof: just the climax of a voyage of spiritually-charged sounds from The 12 Ensemble and organist James McVinnie.
“Half monk, half hooligan” was how one friend described Francis Poulenc and for this most stylish of French composers’ religion was a life-force – explosive, exuberant, and powered by an unstoppable sense of joy. Expect melting harmonies and raw thunder as the energy of 12 Ensemble comes together with St Martins Voices and organist-turned-sonic explorer James McVinnie in two of Poulenc’s most personal masterpieces. They’re the wild, sensual centrepiece of a concert that also features Messiaen at his lushest, Fauré at his sweetest and something rapturous and new, written specially for these performers by Isabella Gellis.
Ex Cathedra sings Tallis’s soaring Spem in Alium, plus other 40-part masterpieces inspired by this awesome work, including a commission from Roderick Williams’ that paints a picture of the urban wilderness that is home to so many of society’s outcasts.
Imagine the sound of heaven itself. A voice calls out in the silence; then another, and another until the whole universe is resounding with sensuous, sacred song. Tallis’s extraordinary Spem in Alium is a monument of renaissance music and one of the most iconic choral works every written – a towering 40-voice motet that creates its own sense of time and space. Every performance is special and today Ex Cathedra pairs it with modern masterpieces inspired by Tallis’s genius, specially written for this superb chamber choir. Alec Roth’s spine-tingling Earthrise re-imagines the Earth as seen from space, and a new work by Roderick Williams looks to the future, as well as the past.
This concert is part of our 300th anniversary celebrations.
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