<img src='' title='Event Category: Concerts' alt='' id='templ_icon_' width='' height='' /> Event Category: Concerts

Family Classics

Our family classics concerts offer the chance for children and adults of all ages to come together in a short 45 minute programme of popular classical music, including a few favourites for you to join in with!

PROGRAMME

Grieg Morning Mood from Peer Gynt
Saint-Saens Hens and Cocks
Tchaikovsky Dance of the Swans from Swan Lake
Saint-Saens The Swan from Carnival of the Animals
Prokofiev Peter’s Theme from Peter and the Wolf
Saint-Saens Royal March of the Lion from Carnival of the Animals
Saint-Saens The Elephant from Carnival of the Animals
Rossini Finale from William Tell Overture
Saint-Saens Kangaroo from Carnival of the Animals
Saint-Saens Fossils from Carnival of the Animals
Tchaikovsky Waltz of the Flowers from Nutcracker
Grieg In the Hall of the Mountain King
Saint-Saens Finale from Carnival of the Animals

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On 18th October, the Junior Choir of St Martin-in-the-Fields will take the lead, presenting the following programme:

Grieg Morning Mood from Peer Gynt
Saint-Saens Hens and Cocks
Britten Cuckoo
Rodney Bennett The Birds Lament
Saint-Saens The Swan from Carnival of the Animals
Prokofiev Peter’s Theme from Peter and the Wolf
Saint-Saens Royal March of the Lion from Carnival of the Animals
Rossini Finale from William Tell Overture
Saint-Saens The Elephant from Carnival of the Animals
Rodney Bennett The Glow Worm from The Insect World
Rodney Bennett Clock a Clay from The Insect World
Saint-Saens Fossils from Carnival of the Animals
Saint-Saens arr. Shorter Finale from Carnival of the Animals
Grieg In the Hall of the Mountain King
Skempton arr. Shorter Pigs Could Fly

This concert lasts 45 minutes with no interval.

Family Classics at Christmas

Our festive family classics concert offers the chance for children and adults of all ages to come together in a short one hour programme of popular classical music, including a few favourites for you to join in with! Programme to include music from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite, Mozart’s Sleigh Ride, Prokofiev’s Troika and Leroy Andersen’s Sleigh Ride.

Make your visit extra special by pre-booking our Christmas lunch and drink offer (hot chocolate for the kids!) or a mince pie and a warming glass of Mulled Wine; available when you book your tickets.

This concert lasts one hour with no interval.

Tenebrae and Britten Sinfonia: Seven Last Words

Barber’s Adagio and Allegri’s Miserere prepare the way for James MacMillan’s great Passion meditation, in this emotionally-charged evening from Nigel Short and Tenebrae.

For Sir James MacMillan, “beauty is at the heart of our Christian faith”, and few living composers communicate with such emotional directness – taking ancient texts and charging them with a wholly original intensity, wonder and imaginative fire. Composed in 1994, his Seven Last Words have already become a classic. Now, on the eve of Holy Week, they form a passionate climax to an superbly-imagined sequence of musical meditations from Nigel Short, the Britten Sinfonia and Tenebrae  – the virtuoso British chamber choir whose singing was described by one critic as “a kind of musical miracle”.

The Gesualdo Six: Pärt Passio

Arvo Pärt once asked a streetcleaner what a contemporary composer should do. The answer? “He should love every note”. The result was Passio – a retelling of Christ’s Passion in which every note matters, every emotion is sincere, and even the darkest sorrow has an inner light. Heartfelt, luminous and serene, Passio is a masterpiece for our time and for all time, and when the Gesualdo Six and St Martin’s own choirs performed it here in 2022 it made a deep impression – “ecstatic”, in the words of one critic. Spiritual refreshment, from the deep, quiet soul of one of a legend among living composers.

The Sixteen: Mother of Mercy – Music for Lent

Lent is supposed to be a time of reflection and austerity, but everything’s relative, and in Portugal, in the 17th and 18th centuries, those weeks of fasting were the pretext for a feast of sacred music at its most emotionally charged. Harry Christophers and his world-famous chamber choir The Sixteen invite us to the banquet today, and music as glorious as Lotti’s Crucifixus needs no introduction. But that’s just for starters. Savour yearning melodies, lush harmonies and soaring, impassioned prayers from Melgas, Caldara and Rebelo, as well as the blossoming, endlessly expressive imagination of Domenico Scarlatti. Self-denial has never sounded so indulgent…

Monteverdi Choir & English Baroque Soloists: Bach – St John Passion

“Ah, my soul where will you go at last? Where shall I find relief?”. Peter Whelan and the Monteverdi Choir perform Bach’s St John Passion.

Filled with emotion, a survivor of great and terrible events tells his tale. As he sings of betrayal and death, the choir becomes an angry crowd, and even the audience is drawn into the unfolding drama. This is Bach’s St John Passion; a masterpiece that speaks to the hearts and spirits of listeners of all faiths and none, and it’s performed at St Martin-in-the-Fields by the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists. Few performers understand this music more deeply; today, for the first time, they perform it under the direction of a true legend of early music, the inspirational Peter Whelan.

The Gesualdo Six/Bill Barclay: Death of Gesualdo

Performed by The Gesualdo Six (director Owain Park) with six dancers

Created and directed by Bill Barclay
Choreography by Will Tuckett
Puppet design by Janni Younge
Costumes by Arthur Oliver
Produced by Concert Theatre Works

In this theatrical concert, the Gesualdo Six reunite with director Bill Barclay to create a follow-up to their international hit Secret Byrd, and open St Martin’s 300th anniversary year.

Six singers, six actors and a puppet enact a series of narrative tableaux which open on the composer’s deathbed and superimpose iconic moments from his life onto some of his most chilling music. The result, a Stations of the Cross for the composer’s tortured conscience, will be the boldest look yet at how the life and music of this enigmatic prodigy must function together for the true Gesualdo to emerge from the shadows.

The madrigalist Carlo Gesualdo (1566-1613) may be most famous for murdering his wife and her lover in bed, but among composers he is revered for anticipating chromaticism by 200 years. Gesualdo’s tortured mind led him into a life of violence and suffering, concluding in appalling tales of sorcery and flagellation. However shockingly macabre his biography, the Prince of Venosa’s malignant narcissism can be traced to key incidents from his upbringing in the zero-sum game of Catholic politics.

Commissioned by The Church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, The National Centre for Early Music in York, and Music Before 1800 in NYC.

This concert lasts one hour with no interval.

For more information about your visit, please see our FAQ page.

 

Handel Water Music by Candlelight

St Martin’s Chamber Ensemble and director Andrew Earis present Handel’s magnificent Water Music suites.

Originally composed for a royal boating excursion on the River Thames in 1717, these orchestral suites are a joyful showcase of Baroque vibrancy and variety.

This concert lasts one hour with no interval.

For more information about your visit, please see our FAQ page.

 

Vivaldi Four Seasons by Candlelight

The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi is a masterpiece of Baroque beauty and drama, still beloved by audiences three centuries later.

In this richly varied programme, St Martin’s Chamber Ensemble presents Vivaldi’s iconic work in its full splendour, together with a dazzling selection of musical gems by Handel, Corelli and Rowley.

This concert lasts one hour with no interval.

For more information about your visit, please see our FAQ page.