St Martin's Singers

Sunday 23rd April at 3:30pm
(two halves of about 35 minutes with a short interval)
St John's Church, Cathedral Square, Peterborough

This is a free concert, but the organisers at St John's will be dependent on your donations if they are to keep going. The suggested donation amount is £8, but don't worry if that's more than you can afford.

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A varied selection of music to celebrate Spring, Easter, Shakespeare and St George. The choir is joined by pianist Kate Bidwell, and conducted by Fergus Black. The group was founded in 2005 for a performance of Britten's Ceremony of Carols at St Martin's Church in Stamford, and is best known for its annual Christmas concert.

Starting with three movements from Spring, the first part of Haydn's 'Seasons', the choir will proceed via a clutch of Easter songs and motets to Five Shakespeare Lyrics by Philip Lane. They are great fun (short contrasting songs in a variety of styles: a dirge, a jazz waltz, a pastorale, etc), written in 1987 for Cheltenham Ladies College. The concert concludes with Part Two and the Epilogue from Elgar's The Banner Of St. George (the bit where St George rescues Sabra, daughter of the King of Sylenë, from the dragon). If you know the Elgar, you will know that it is very dramatic and that the rousing Epilogue is the best bit. And if you don't like April in Peterborough, there will hopefully be time for a short encore: April in Paris by Vernon Duke!

PROGRAMME

Invocation to Spring - Edmund Rubbra
Spring - Scenes from Haydn's 'Seasons' - arr Whitaker
Varen (Last Spring) - Greig
Three Unaccompanied Easter Songs:
Victimae paschali laudes - Ron Jeffers
All in an April evening - Hugh Roberton
This Joyful Eastertide arr Ledger
INTERVAL
Five Shakespeare Lyrics - Philip Lane
Banner Of St. George Part 2 - Elgar

(ENCORE: April in Paris - Vernon Duke)