Music over the Easter Period
Over the forthcoming Easter long-weekend, Cambridge Voices and Ian de Massini will, once again, present a series of concerts in and around Cambridge, including our own village of Swaffham Prior, that will highlight the contrasting themes that surround these momentous days in the church year.
GOOD FRIDAY, APRIL 9th @ 4.00pm
Cambridge Voices present their annual "Music for Holy Week" concert in St Cyriac & St Julitta's Church, Swaffham Prior, which has proved increasingly successful since its inception, some ten years ago. This year, the choir will perform Stainer's "Crucifixion", a wonderfully evocative setting of the Passion narrative that even includes audience participation in the glorious Passiontide hymns. In the first half of the concert, the choir will perform the famous "Miserere mei" by Allegri, a vituosic setting of the "Stabat Mater" text, set for 10 solo voices, by Domenico Scarlatti, Sir John Tavener's deeply haunting "Funeral Ikos" and concluding with thy hypnotic masterpiece "Tulerunt Dominum", attributed to Josquin des Pres, depicting the very first moments of that first Easter dawn. Admission is by programme, at the door, costing £6 (no concessions).
EASTER EVE / HOLY SATURDAY, APRIL 10th @ 4.00pm
Ian de Massini, Director of Cambridge Voices, will perform, from memory, the first 12 of the 24 Preludes and Fugues that make up Bach's "Well-tempered Clavier" Book 1 on the piano, again in St Cyriac & St Julitta's, Swaffham Prior. These astonishingly varied works by Bach were a deliberate statement, on the composer's part, to show the tremendous advancements he had made in keyboard virtuosity and in his breathtaking, harmonic awareness. Nowadays, this collection has come to be regarded as The Old Testament of the piano repertoire (with Beethoven's sonatas forming the complementary, New Testament). Admission is by programme, on the door, costing £6 (or you can buy a programme both for this concert and also for the next day's conclusion, when Ian performs the final 12 Preludes and Fugues in St Columba's, Cambridge, for £10).
EASTER DAY / SUNDAY, APRIL 11th @ 7.00pm
Ian de Massini performs the final 12 of the 24 Preludes and Fugues that make up Bach's "Well-tempered Clavier" Book 1, on the piano in the Cambridge church of St Columba's, Downing Street. Admission is by programme, at the door, costing £6 (or you can buy a programme for both this concert and for the one day before, in Swaffham Prior, for £10).
EASTER BANK HOLIDAY MONDAY @ 4.00pm
To bring the Easter festivities to a close, Cambridge Voices and Ian de Massini combine forces with The Orchestra of the Age of Reason and virtuoso recorderplayer Michael Copley (formerly of The Academy of Ancient Music and The Cambridge Buskers) to present a concert-performance of Handel's delightfully tuneful pastoral entertainment "Acis and Galatea". For this work, Handel has provided some of his most sensual music for two flutes, two oboes, orchestra, soloists and chorus. The venue chosen is The Townley Memorial Hall in Fulbourn. Tickets cost £10, at the door, (£3 for under-16s, students and jobseekers) and includes interval refreshments.