Handel Quire - Ravishing Romantics: Brahms, Wesley, Bairstow

Our August programme features the music of a variety of composers mostly of the Romantic era. Wesley's two large-scale anthems "Ascribe Unto The Lord" and "The Wilderness" consist of divine verse quartets for solo voices which contrast with the full choir and organ in thrilling majesty. Singers from the National Youth Choir and Voices NZ will join us as soloists along with one of our own sopranos. Brahms op 109 for double choir is exhilarating music to sing but also fiendishly hard with huge leaps for some of the parts and goes lickety-split - buckle up! Bairstow wrote some wonderful anthems, two of which we will sing. "Blessed city" is magnificently dramatic with an electrifying organ part, and "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence" is also fabulously dramatic in its understated a cappella fashion which begins in ominous male unison but builds to a spectacular climax with rapturous "Allelujahs" in glorious full choir harmony. The final choral number is by Tchaikovsky and his "Hymn of the Cherubim" taken from his Liturgy of St John of Chrysostom is just exquisite. Beginning pianissimo with slowly descending scales, alongside sustained notes in other parts, the music seems to float ethereally until a sudden section of loud block chords creates an effective contrast, then the first section repeats until a final exhilarating fast section rounds off the piece. Organist Helen Lukman-Fox will play some organ solos as well as accompanying the choir.