St. Martin’s Chamber Choir 2017-2018 Concert Season
HERBERT HOWELLS’ REQUIEM
F U L L E N S E M B L E / O R G A N
Herbert Howells never quite fully recovered from the death of his 9-year-old son Michael in 1935. The outpouring of music that helped the father deal with his crushing grief is among the most poignant and powerful of any composer in any era. Principal among them is a work penned intermittently between the 1930’s and 50’s, a requiem (though, like Brahms, the composer chose many of his own texts rather than setting the usual liturgical text). Showing the sketches of these intensely private works to Vaughan Williams in the 50’s, the latter persuaded him to publish them. Also on the program will be Gerald Finzi’s haunting “Lo, the full, final sacrifice,” and a new work by Mack Wilberg called “The Prodigal,” both with organ.
Friday, May 18, 7:30 PM: Saint John’s Episcopal Cathedral, Denver
Sunday, May 20, 3:00 PM: Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Wheat Ridge
Off-street parking map:
Saint John’s Episcopal Cathedral
Earlier this season
ST. MARTIN’S FESTIVAL SINGERS:
SYMPHONIC A CAPPELLA
S T . M A R T I N ’ S F E S T I V A L S I N G E R S
The debut of the Festival Singers in September of 2016 was with orchestra; this season, the Festival Singers is inaugurated into the glories of a cappella music – St. Martin’s bread and butter – with large scale unaccompanied choral works on a symphonic scale. A Mass for two unequal choirs by Louis Spohr might be what Mendelssohn would have written had he chosen to set the Mass text. And 20th century Scottish composer Granville Bantock conceived of choral works on a massive scale, including his choral symphony A Pageant of Human Life in 12 parts.
Friday, September 22, 7:30 PM: Bethany Lutheran Church, Cherry Hills Village
Sunday, September 24, 3:00 PM: Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church, Denver
A MIGHTY FORTRESS:
THE REFORMATION and MUSIC
2017 is the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. This concert traces the influence of the Reformation on music, with compositions from the earliest Lutheran composers like Johann Walther and Johann Crüger, through the Baroque masters Heinrich Schütz and J. S. Bach, the Classical successor Homilius, and the Reformation’s apotheosis in the music of the Romantic era’s Mendelssohn.
Friday, October 27, 7:30 PM: Saint Paul Community of Faith, Denver
Saturday, October 28, 7:30 PM: St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Denver
Sunday, October 29, 3:00 PM: Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Wheat Ridge
A WINTER’S NIGHT:
CHRISTMAS with ST. MARTIN’S
F U L L E N S E M B L E / O R G A N
Benjamin Britten was only 20 years old when he wrote the a cappella Christmas cantata A Boy was Born in 1933. He revised the piece in 1955, demonstrating how highly he esteemed it even though it was a product of his youth. Although it uses an early-20th century harmonic language, rich with post-Romantic lushness and piquant dissonances, it has an ancient, almost medieval, feel about it that transports the listener to Christmases long ago. The other half of the concert features the Christmas cantata A Winter’s Night by Cecilia McDowall (b. 1951) with organ, a work rich with familiar carol tunes, including opportunities for audience participation.
Christmas with St. Martin’s. A Denver tradition!
Friday, December 15, 7:30 PM: Saint John’s Episcopal Cathedral, Denver
Saturday, December 16, 7:30 PM: Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church, Denver
Sunday, December 17, 3:00 PM: Saint Paul Community of Faith, Denver
Friday, December 22, 7:30 PM: Bethany Lutheran Church, Cherry Hills Village
VOICES and WINDS:
Sonic Splendor
F U L L E N S E M B L E / C O L O R A D O W I N D E N S E M B L E
St. Martin’s teams up with the Colorado Wind Ensemble, David Kish director, in a performance of Anton Bruckner’s rarely heard Mass No. 2 in E minor (for winds, brass and chorus). The world premiere of a work with the same instrumentation by Daniel Kellogg, commissioned by the two ensembles to a text by Walt Whitman, will crown the concert with historical significance. On their own, St. Martin’s will sing Terry Schlenker’s “Into Paradise” and William Harris’s “Faire is the Heavnens;” and the Colorado Wind Ensemble will play the Suite Française by Francis Poulenc.
Friday, February 23, 7:30 PM: Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church, Denver
Sunday, February 25, 3:00 PM: Bethany Lutheran Church, Cherry Hills Village
MOZART and SCARLATTI
FATHERS and SONS
Musical talent runs in the family, and the Mozart and Scarlatti families are a case in point. The Scarlattis (Alessandro and Domenico) were both primarily vocal composers, working in the church and operatic circles, even though the son is primarily remembered for his ground-breaking keyboard works. The centerpiece of this concert is Domenico Scarlatti’s 10-part Stabat Mater; it will be joined by father Leopold Mozart’s Mass in C (mistakenly attributed for decades to the son Wolfgang), Alessandro Scarlatti’s Salve Regina, and Wolfgang Mozart’s Venite populi. Members of the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado join St. Martin’s singers for this celebration of familial music-making.
Friday, April 13, 7:30 PM: Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Wheat Ridge
Saturday, April 14, 7:30 PM: St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Denver
Sunday, April 15, 3:00 PM: Saint Paul Community of Faith, Denver
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