TGIF, Dec 13, 5:30pm
We have a double treat this Friday when the eternal Summer Symphony Orchestra and our own Chancel Choir perform music by Bach and Finzi. Doors to the sanctuary open at 5:15pm and the concert begins at 5:30pm. The concert is free with donations accepted.
Program
CPE Bach Symphony in D Major H. 663
Gerald Finzi In terra pax, op. 39
Written in 1954, two years before Finzi’s death in 1956, In terra pax uses both the words of Robert Bridges in “Noel: Christmas Eve, 1913” (sung by the baritone soloist) and the favorite Christmas passage from St Luke about the Angels and Shepherd (sung by the soprano soloist and chorus).
Finzi unites his love of literature and the English countryside. Ralph Vaughan Williams recalled Finzi speaking of an experience thirty years before this work was written. One Christmas Eve Finzi climbed up to the church at the top of his beloved Chosen Hill, between Gloucester and Cheltenham. The sound of the midnight bells ringing out across the frosty Gloucestershire valleys. Vaughan Williams felt this experience gave Finzi the soundscape for In Terra Pax.
Finzi explained that in In terra pax, “the Nativity becomes a vision seen by a wanderer on a dark and frosty Christmas Eve in our own familiar landscape.” Placing the Biblical story into an English pastoral setting, Finzi fuses together the English Romantic literary tradition with his lifelong dedication to his own rural paradise at his home in Ashmansworth, near Newbury.
eternal Summer Symphony Orchestra
In the summer of 2008 the orchestra was conceived as a way for friends to get together and read music in a casual, relaxed setting during the summer months when other regional amateur orchestras were taking their summer break. As time went by, the group has become more focused on refined performances, and in October 2012 the orchestra began to rehearse and perform year-round.
eSSO Santa Fe is conducted by rotating regional professional musicians and graduate conducting students from the University of New Mexico, School of Fine Arts, in Albuquerque.
eSSO Santa Fe plays four orchestral concerts each year, typically June, October, December, and March as part of our TGIF concert series. Additionally, the group often schedules a late summer chamber performance which allows groups within the orchestra to form and work-up individual chamber works.
eSSO Santa Fe’s past and upcoming repertoire include Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, Mendelssohn String Symphonies, Mozart Symphonies, Divertimenti and Concertos, Haydn Symphonies, Telemann Overtures, Stamitz Mannheim Symphonies and various concertos featuring members of the orchestra and guest performers.
The Chancel Choir
The Chancel Choir of First Presbyterian Church is a group of volunteer singers that provides music for Sunday morning services throughout the year. In addition to singing hymns with the congregation during the services, the group performs an anthem for each Sunday service and, when appropriate, provides choral responses during the service. The Choir also performs regularly on the TGIF Concert Series, presenting masterworks by notable composers, often with soloists from the choir.
After enjoying this concert, you may want to become a part of the beautiful singing at First Presbyterian Church and sing a wonderful range of music from choral classics to folk music from around the world! Contact Linda at lraney@fpcsantafe.org for more information.