The Chandos Singers, conducted by Malcolm Hill, are one of Bath’s leading chamber choirs. Their most recent concert took place in Magdalen Chapel in July, showcasing composers with strong ties to Bath and including works by members of the choir as well as settings by Malcolm Hill of poems from find another bath, a collection of work by local artists and writers.
The main piece to be performed in the Chandos Singers’ Christmas concert is the Christmas Oratorio by Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921). The concert also includes the Three Biblical Scenes by Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672), and works by composers with whom he interacted: Giovanni Gabrieli (c.1554-1612), Samuel Scheidt (1587-1654), Johann Hermann Schein (1586-1630) and Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643).
In 1857 Saint-Saëns became organist at the Madeleine in Paris. In the following November the church authorities complained that although his improvisations on plainsong themes during the services were “spectacular”, he was not fulfilling their expectations with regard to other church compositions; so he set about composing the Oratorio de Noël, which he completed in a week, just in time for its first performance on Christmas Day 1858. The work was purposely traditional in design, and was an instant success. The opening Prelude, much like the pastoral movement from Handel’s Messiah, provides much of the music for the movements near the end of the work. The airs are more like rococo arias.
Heinrich Schütz was one of the most widely travelled composers of his time in Europe, firstly for extended tuition, and later to keep north of the fighting during the Thirty Years’ War. Wherever he went he made lasting friendships with local composers, while also providing his own purpose-written works for local performance. Schütz’s Three Biblical Scenes includes much reference to Christmas; the style of Gabrieli’s 8-voice Jubilate can be heard in its jubilant sections. Schütz’s boyhood friend, Michael Praetorius, wrote a setting of Psallite which a later friend, Samuel Scheidt, expanded in his Christmas Magnificat – a work which alternates plainsong and choral settings of the canticle’s text with extended settings of Christmas-related words.
The concert will be held in the serene surroundings of the Magdalen Chapel on Holloway, Bath. A chapel is known to have existed on this site in the 11th century, and a leper hospital was built close by in the 12th. Both were under the care of the Abbey monks. The current building is 15th century. Despite severe bomb damage in 1942, it remains an active centre of worship.
Interval refreshments will be available.
The 6.30 start is to counteract the winter and does not signify an extra-long concert.