Chichester Cathedral. 15, 16, 17 & 18th July 2010.
Chichester, West Sussex PO19 1PX.
http://www.chichestercathedral.org.uk/
Chichester Cathedral SCF 2010 Page
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Southern Cathedrals Festival is a celebration of cathedrals and their music, held in turn at Chichester, Salisbury and Winchester.
Cathedral music is truly one of this country’s national treasures. It offers sacred choral and organ music performed to the very highest standard by the three cathedrals’ renowned choirs. The choirs will be performing separately and together and will be complemented by visiting performers.
The music is presented in concerts and within worship. The Festival offers a unique opportunity to enjoy music and to take part in worship within the setting of three magnificent cathedrals.
The Festival Brochure and list of events and performances can be seen here.
The Southern Cathedrals Festival marks its 50th anniversary in 2010 and we look forward to welcoming you to Chichester in this celebration year. The services, which lie at the heart of the Festival, will include a recreation of the 1960 Combined Evensong, which will be recorded for broadcast on Radio 3.
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HAVPCD350 – Carols from Chichester Cathedral
“Gramophone Critics Christmas Choice 2009” to be announced in the December issue.
“BBC Music Magazine Christmas Choice 2009” announced in the December issue.
Christmas is a special time for Chichester Cathedral Choir. In addition to a run of concerts at the Festival Theatre and services for radio and local organizations, the Choir sings the traditional services on Christmas Eve and Day, and three Cathedral services of lessons and carols.
The selection of music for Carols from Chichester Cathedral is intended to capture the spirit of these services, which are popular with the young and old alike. Some of the usual congregational carols, with the familiar David Willcocks descants, sit alongside other Christmas favourites such as In the bleak mid-winter and Tomorrow shall be my dancing day. Mark Wardell’s Rocking was specially written for the Choristers for this CD, and like David Hill’s Away in a manger demonstrates the power of a good tune in the hands of a skilful arranger.
“The English Cathedral tradition at its very finest”
– Five Stars for Recording & Performance.
- BBC Music Magazine, December 2009
The Lay Vicars sing one to a part in Brian Kay’s version of Gaudete, and at the other end of the spectrum is the atmospheric full choir work Lux aurumque by the contemporary American composer, Eric Whitacre. The Sussex Carol is particularly appropriate for Chichester Cathedral Choir: the melody is reputed to have been collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Cecil Sharp in the West Sussex village of Monk’s Gate. The Cathedral Choir is accompanied on the Hill organ by Mark Wardell, who also plays three contrasting settings for solo organ of In dulci jubilo and J.S. Bach’s Chorale Prelude Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her – ‘From heaven above, to earth I come’.
