Advent concert by The Choir of Merton College Oxford
Saturday 12th December 2015
Time 7.30pm
“One of the UK’s finest choral ensembles” Gramophone, December 2011
This “exceptional, fascinating and stylish” mixed voice choir (The Scotsman, 2015) visits Edington Priory Church for the first time, under the direction of its conductor, Benjamin Nicholas. They will present a programme specially devised for Advent and Christmas, which they will then repeat at St John Smith Square in London the following week. You’ll hear it here first!
The programme makes the journey from plainchant to the present day, through some of the loveliest music written for Advent and Christmas through the centuries.
The choir consists of 30 under- and postgraduates, many of whom hold Choral Scholarships at Merton. They have toured the USA, France and Sweden, taken part in a number of prestigious music festivals, broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and BBC TV, and released four CDs, all of which have received glowing reviews.
Tickets are £20/15/10, discounts for Edington Angels, and 18 and under come FREE. Please add £2 if you buy on the door.
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Merton College Choir with Conductor Benjamin Nicholas
The programme
Plainchant
Advent Prose
William Byrd
Fantasia in D minor (organ solo); Rorate caeli desuper; Tollite portas; Ave Maria; Ecce virgo concipiet
J.S.Bach
Wachet Auf BWV 645 (organ solo, Benjamin Nicholas); In dulci jubilo (organ solo)
Rihards Dubra
O Radix Jesse (written for the Merton Choirbook)
Eriks Esenwalds
O Emmanuel (written for the Merton Choirbook)
Matthew Martin
O Oriens; Noel sing we
Benjamin Britten
From A Ceremony of Carols: Hodie Christus Natus est; Wolcum Yule; There is no Rose
Ralph Vaughan Williams
This is the truth sent from above
Appalachian arr. Andrew Carter
I wonder as I wander
Robert Pearsall
In dulci jubilo
Adolphe Adam
O holy night!
Bob Chilcott
The Bird of Dawning (written for the Merton Choirbook); the Shepherd's Carol