We are pleased to present our Christmas concert which again is in the beautiful setting of the parish church of St Nicolas in Nuneaton. This is the final concert in the year when we have celebrated 50 years of choral singing as Atherstone Choral Society. We are delighted to share this very special performance with Bedworth Brass who will, as always, be providing wonderful Christmas music to accompany those much-loved traditional carols as well as a selection of their favourite band pieces. The choir have a lovely programme planned which includes a mixture of well-known Christmas favourites as well as some Christmas songs and carols which may be new to you.
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Atherstone Choral Society is honoured to join Birmingham Festival Choral Society (BFCS), Coventry Philharmonic Choir and Leamington Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of David Wynne, for this performance of The Dream Of Gerontius. This iconic choral piece is recognised as one of the giants of choral music ranking alongside works such as Handel’s Messiah and JS Bach’s B Minor Mass.
This performance is particularly significant for two reasons. First, it marks the 125th anniversary of the premiere which, took place in 1900, in Birmingham Town Hall, under the Musical Direction of the composer, Sir Edward Elgar.
Second, the choir who sang at that first performance on October 3rd 1900, was none other than Birmingham Festival Choral Society!
In brief, The Dream of Gerontius, the poem by Cardinal, St John Henry Newman follows Gerontius, the main character. as he passes from this life to the next. Elgar uses the text as the framework for this truly memorable work which is scored for soloists, double choir and semi chorus, extended orchestra and organ.
At the end of the manuscript score, Elgar wrote this quotation from John Ruskin‘s Sesame and Lilies:
This is the best of me; for the rest, I ate, and drank, and slept, loved and hated, like another: my life was as the vapour and is not; but this I saw and knew; this, if anything of mine, is worth your memory.