St Martin-in-the-Fields
Step into the ever-changing beauty of nature through Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, a stunning musical journey that vividly captures spring’s rebirth, summer’s heat, autumn’s harvest, and winter’s chill. This timeless masterpiece brings the essence of each season to life like no other, accompanied by elegant dances and Baroque treasures from Mozart, Purcell, and Sancho.
An evocative musical journey through some of America’s most beloved and timeless compositions.
This thoughtfully crafted collection features the poignant elegance of Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, the lyrical warmth of Aaron Copland’s Finale from Appalachian Spring, and the soulful harmonies of Eric Whitacre’s Five Hebrew Love Songs. Interwoven with spirituals, folk-inspired arrangements, and jazz-inflected standards by George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein, the program celebrates the rich tapestry of American music – from sacred to theatrical.
St Martin’s Voices present an ethereal programme for Holy Saturday, including Allegri’s stunningly beautiful Miserere and James MacMillan’s evocative contemporary setting of the same text.
Performed alongside the haunting polyphony of Victoria and movements from Scarlatti’s transcendent Stabat Mater, these unaccompanied choral works form an exquisite contemplation on the themes of Eastertide.
The highly acclaimed Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir bring their unique soulful groove to the St Martin’s stage, presenting an invigorating programme of live gospel and soul.
Gospel music is a wonder of the world, a blend of authentic Spirit-filled praise, artistic greatness and sheer musical emotion. A product of the horror of trans-Atlantic slavery, gospel music is inseparable from the Christian gospel, both being stories of hope and beauty stemming from suffering and abuse. Meanwhile gospel music lies at the core of all African-American music and has thereby reached every cultural corner of the world, secular as well as sacred.
In A Brief History of Gospel Music, Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir tells this story in twelve songs, interspersed by brief texts prepared for the occasion under the guidance of Robert Marovich. Beginning with the sounds of West Africa and their synthesis into antebellum Spirituals, the evening’s programme consists of archetypes of the genre’s evolution – from the Jubilee era from 1870, the jazz/blues fusion from 1930, the “Golden Age” of 1940-1960, the civil rights and soul era from 1960, the popular era from 1980 and the urban era from 2000.
Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir is a London-based gospel choir committed to creating and performing contemporary gospel of the highest standard as widely as possible, especially in the places where gospel’s power to raise the human spirit is most needed. Author and radio host Robert Marovich is the founder and editor of the Chicago-based “Journal of Gospel Music” and is one of the world’s premier authorities on gospel music.
Six musicians from Apollo’s Fire invite you back to the year 1610 in this lunchtime chamber recital. This fascinating programme explores the rich musical world of 17th-century Europe, where music flowed freely from taverns to courtly halls.
Art music and popular music walked hand in hand in those days, as many composers wrote artful variations on popular songs. The sounds of plucked instruments – lute, oud, and harps – accompany voices and violin in this musical voyage from the British Isles to the Mediterranean. Performing in the historical troubadour tradition, harpist/soprano Anna O’Connell accompanies herself in John Dowland’s soulful lament, Flow My Tears. Soprano Lucine Musaelian accompanies herself on the viola da gamba as she sings a haunting Armenian love song. Oud master Ronnie Malley sets sparks flying as we finish the program with a brilliant Turkish dance.
Part of Apollo’s Fire Residency at St Martin-in-the-Fields. Be sure to catch the full baroque orchestra in their Friday evening programme (“FENCING MATCH”) and their Saturday evening concert (“O JERUSALEM!”).
Honouring the peoples whose music and faith brought such vibrancy to the Middle East, this acclaimed programme from Jeannette Sorrell is a musical tour of the four quarters of Old Jerusalem (Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Armenian).
Surprising cross-influences emerge, as a Sephardic ballad leads to a classical Arabic love song, and selections from Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 echo the exotic and rapturous singing of the Jewish cantors in the temples. Twenty-six artists from Jewish, Palestinian, and Christian backgrounds perform on oud, theorbo, medieval harp, zither, strings, and percussion in a joyous celebration of shared humanity.
“Brims with energy and imagination… Programmed with real vision and beautifully performed, a mesmerising portrait of Old Jerusalem reimagined through sound.” (BBC Music Magazine).
The Americans and Brits face off in a lively transatlantic ‘duel’ (no muskets or bayonets this time):
Apollo’s Fire (‘the USA’s hottest baroque band’) is joined by principal members of the English Baroque Soloists for a spirited evening that includes the Bach Double Violin Concerto, music by Vivaldi and a colourful suite by Marais.
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