A Ceremony of Carols – Music for a Winter’s Evening

A concert of Music for a Winter
Evening will commence with one of Benjamin
Britten’s best known works A Ceremony of Carols. A perfect opener for
Advent, a setting of a cycle of poems from the English Galaxy Of Shorter
Poems which Britten acquired on his way home from America in 1942.

The Carols are accompanied
by Harp and a Soprano Soloist.LCS is
pleased to welcome Alice Madden and Sophie Henderson who will perform
alongside us.

After the interval we turn
to shorter works by English and North American composers.   A Winter Day by the Canadian choral
composer Sarah Quartel is the centre-piece with our regular accompanist
Marion Bettsworth teaming up with Cellist Emma Capp – it’s a beautiful depiction
of a winter’s day which LCS previously sang in our “coming out of lockdown”
concert in 2020.

Other works will continue
the seasonal theme – Malcolm Archer’s A little child there is yborn;
Thomas Hewitt Jones’ Child of the Stable and Stephen Main’s The
darkest midnight in December, Eleanor Daley’s setting of The Huron
Carol and Reena Esmail’s The unexpected early hour, all celebrate
Christmas.

The second-half will start
with John Gardner’s popular and joyful setting of Tomorrow shall be my
dancing day a traditional English hymn text and rounded off with a
version of Hodie! Christus Natus Est from the Christmas-eve vespers by
John Leavitt ending the concert with the same text used by Benjamin Britten to
open his celebration of yuletide.