The church was packed again for the Christmas concert by Kings College London Choir.
It wasn't exactly a carol concert, though some carols were included - the glorious finale was Joy to the World and they also sang the Coventry Carol (probably the only Christmas carol about the Massacre of the Innocents by King Herod), and Three Kings from Persian lands afar. During the course of the concert, I was very impressed to see that the choristers were singing in Russian and Latin as well as English.
The first half was music by Taverner and Rachmaninoff.
I had a vague recollection that I'd heard choral music by Taverner before, and I was right - his Song for Athene was performed at Princess Diana's funeral. This time, the pieces were Ikon of the Nativity and As One Who Has Slept, both solemn and complex harmonies, bookending the much longer six part Vespers from Rachmaninoff's All-Night Vigil, which was heavily based on Orthodox chants.
I think my favourite pieces came in the second half - the conductor, Dr Joseph Fort, had constructed the order of music around four linked pieces by Poulenc, written after he had seen a series of frescos about the Nativity story in Florence. One of the things that struck him about the frescos was that the angels all seemed to be having fun, making faces at each other, and sticking their tongues out! Hence his comment: "Angels aren't always saints". So some of that music is very jolly, especially the piece about the shepherds.
To pair with each of the Poulenc pieces, he chose The Coventry Carol and In the stillness by Sally Beamish for the first (Christ lying in the manger); Angelus ad pastores ait by Raffealla Aleotti for the shepherds; O Radiant Dawn by James Macmillan and The Three Kings carol for the wise men, and Joy to the World to follow the last Poulenc piece, Hodie Christus natus est (Today Christ is born).
It was all absolutely sublime.
Hay Music has a full programme of concerts already planned out for next year, the first being The Marsyas Trio on Sunday 12th January at 3pm. As usual, tickets are available through Hay Music or the Tourist Bureau.
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