{"id":1368,"date":"2026-03-24T11:16:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T10:16:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newchambersingers.com\/?page_id=1368"},"modified":"2026-04-16T16:22:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T14:22:49","slug":"choral-flowers-19-april-2026","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/newchambersingers.com\/en\/choral-flowers-19-april-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Choral Flowers: 19 April 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

To read some notes about the music we will perform, please just scroll down the page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To access more-detailed public (usually Wikipedia) information about the composers and\/or the music, click the appropriate links in the page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Choir<\/td>New Chamber Singers<\/strong>
Sopranos<\/strong>: Aline Loiseau, Carlotta Caimi, Diane Pereira, Emmanuelle Judet, Helen Raiswell, Ines Buono, Kasey Cohimia, Marcella Mancini
Altos<\/strong>: Alessandra Darin, Andrea Perlis, Carla Carri, Eleni Dimmler, Jo Glaiser, Judith Faulkner, Laura Alimonti, Louise Gullifer, Lu Zarkovic, Mary New, Monika Boothby, Tina Alberti
Tenors<\/strong>: Alessio Paoletti, Chris Phillips, Franco Chiarini, Giacomo Salvatori, Stephen Weiss
Basses<\/strong>: Jim McManus, J\u00f6rg Schaden, Robert Gullifer, Roberto Di Mattei, Thomas Hofer, Tom Whalen<\/td><\/tr>
Conductors<\/td>Stefano Vasselli (1969 – )<\/a>, Francesco del Fra (1975 – )<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Organist<\/td>Efisio Aresu (1997 – )<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Program<\/td>If ye love me<\/a><\/td>Thomas Tallis (1505 – 1585)<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in C<\/td>Charles Villiers Stanford (1852 – 1924)<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Spirito santo, Amore<\/td>Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525 – 1594)<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Figlio d’immortal Padre<\/td>Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525 – 1594)<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Ricercare del Secondo tono per Organo<\/td>Costanzo Antegnati (1549 – 1624)<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Sicut Cervus<\/td>Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525 – 1594)<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
O Salutaris Hostia<\/a><\/td>Gioachino Antonio Rossini (1792 \u2013 1868)<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Pater Noster<\/a><\/td>Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (1813 \u2013 1901)<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
O Sacrum Convivium<\/a><\/td>Monsignor Lorenzo Perosi (1872 \u2013 1956)<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
O Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem<\/a><\/td>Herbert Howells (1892 \u2013 1983)<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Toccata from Symphony for Organ No. 5<\/a><\/td>Charles-Marie Widor (1844 – 1937)<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Deep River<\/a><\/td>Anon., arrangement: Stefano Vasselli (1969 – )<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Ev\u2019ry time I feel the Spirit<\/a><\/td>Anon., arrangement: Stefano Vasselli (1969 – )<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Our concert poster uses the metaphor of spring flowers illuminated by the rising sun to invoke the Resurrection of Christ. Because that’s what we have – the flowers of 450 years of Christian inspiration creating music that opens like spring flowers to our receptive ears. We range from the delicate orchid-like spiritual madrigals of Palestrina through the rich roses of Stanford’s Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis to the calm grandeur of massed bluebells and daffodils in a woodland setting representing the popular African-American spirituals arranged by our maestro. Enjoy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If ye love me.<\/strong> This setting of Jesus’ words, as recorded by the apostle John (14: 15-17), was amongst the earliest biblical texts to be set to music in the vernacular English. The first English language bible was published in 1539 and Tallis<\/a> wrote this piece about 10 years later, when the church appointed this text as the standard gospel reading for Whit Sunday (Pentecost) in 1549. His setting follows the instructions of the early Anglican churchmen working to popularise the Great Bible (as it was known) who decreed to composers: “to each syllable a plain and distinct note”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in C major.<\/strong> Charles Villiers Stanford<\/a> wrote this work in 1909, and it has since become a staple for English choirs singing Evensong in churches and cathedrals across the land. It was composed for the choir of St Paul’s Cathedral, London, and is renowned for its large-scale, organ-driven, and slightly symphonic approach, often associated with the “Great Service” tradition. Stanford was an Anglo-Irish composer, music teacher, and conductor of the late Romantic era. Born to a well-off and highly musical family in Dublin, he was educated at the University of Cambridge before studying music in Leipzig and Berlin. In 1882, aged 29, he was one of the founding professors of the Royal College of Music<\/a>, where he taught composition for the rest of his life, as well as being Professor of Music at Cambridge from 1887. As a teacher, Stanford was sceptical about modernism, and based his instruction chiefly on classical principles as exemplified in the music of Brahms. Among his pupils were rising composers whose fame went on to surpass his own, such as Gustav Holst<\/a> and Ralph Vaughan Williams<\/a>. His best-remembered pieces are his choral works for church performance, chiefly composed in the Anglican tradition, such as the piece we perform. Some critics regarded Stanford, together with Hubert Parry<\/a> and Alexander Mackenzie<\/a>, as responsible for a renaissance in music from the British Isles. However, despite his conspicuous success as a composer in the last two decades of the 19th century, his music was eclipsed in the 20th century by that of Edward Elgar<\/a> as well as by his former pupils.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spirito santo, Amore <\/strong>and Figlio d’immortal Padre.<\/strong> These two spiritual madrigals, a genre beloved by the proponents of the Counter-Reformation, were written by Palestrina <\/a>some years apart, the first being published in 1581 and the second at the end of his life in 1594. It will be noted that, like the work by Tallis, these are both written in the vernacular – this time in 15th and 16th Century Italian. Spirito santo, amore<\/em> was written by Leonardo Giustinian (1388 – 1446)<\/a>, a Venetian politician, humanist and composer, while Figlio d’immortal Padre<\/em> flowed from the pen of Antonio Migliore, Bishop of San Marco, who published his poem in 1593.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The “Palestrina style”, according to most musicologists, followed these basic guidelines:<\/p>\n\n\n\n