Voix de Vivre - Franco/English Christmas Concert

Voix de Vivre present a Franco/English Christmas concert with an individual twist featuring the Messe de Minuit and the rarely performed Double Choir Mass of leading 17th century French baroque composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier, a favourite of Molière and the court of Louis XIV. Adding extra seasonal spice are motets by Francis Poulenc, the most quirky of French modernists and the aristocratic Languedocien Déodat de Séverac. The English half of the programme includes pieces by the highly distinctive Peter Warlock, pseudonym of Philip Heseltine: his Corpus Christi Carol, steeped in mystical medievalism as well as two other carols, Tyrley Tyrlow and Balulalow. Benjamin Britten’s miniature masterpiece A Hymn to the Virgin continues the contemporary take on an early English theme. The programme is completed by Gerald Finzi’s In Terra Pax, Op 39, a ‘Christmas Scene’ for chorus, orchestra and baritone soloist - a lushly lyrical setting of the words of Robert Bridges.

Voix de Vivre chamber choir is delighted to be complemented by an orchestra of strings, harp, recorders and organ led by Miles Golding.