O Holy Night\u2019 \u2013 Music for Christmas
\nWilliam Byrd Sing joyfully
\nJosef Haydn\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b Gloria (Missa Sancti Nicolai)
\nW A Mozart Laudate Dominum
\nBenjamin Britten A Hymn to the Virgin
\nOrgan Solo:
\nJ.S.Bach Prelude & Fugue in G BWV 541
\nHerbert Howells A Spotless Rose
\nDobrinka Tabakova Alma Redemptoris Mater
\nTrad German arr. R Pearsall \u200bIn dulci jubilo
\nHarold Darke In the bleak midwinter
\nArr. David Willcocks \u200b\u200b\u200bOnce in royal David\u2019s city
\nOrlando di Lassus Omnes de Saba venient
\nJean Mouton Nesciens Mater
\nBob Chilcott\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b Shepherd\u2019s Carol
\nJohn Gardner \u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b A Gallery Carol
\nAdolph Adam (arr. J Rutter) O holy night!
\nOrgan Solo:
\nLouis Vierne Final (Symphonie 1)
\nRalph Vaughan Williams \u200b\u200bFantasia on Christmas Carols
\n“the superb performances are characterised by a phenomenal sense of control and restraint, with every note carefully crafted and bathed in the radiant acoustic of the college chapel” Church Music Quarterly, March 2014
\n\u201cAnother choral hit with this exceptional and fascinating collection themed around musical representations of the Virgin Mary. And once again, Merton College Choir is the immaculate vehicle for performances that encompass the old and the new.\u201d
\n\u2014 The Scotsman, January 2015, FIVE STARS
\n\u201cWell performed, beautifully sung and exquisitely recorded. Who could ask for anything more?\u201d
\nGramophone, April 2016
\nBIOGRAPHY
\nThe Choir of Merton College is one of Oxford\u2019s leading mixed-voice choirs and sings the liturgies, during term-time, in the thirteenth century chapel. The thirty undergraduates and postgraduates read a number of different subjects and are ordinarily members of Merton College. Outside term, the choir tours regularly, most recently visiting Sweden, France and the USA. Performances in 2016 included Mozart\u2019s Requiem in Toulouse, and engagements at Washington National Cathedral and St Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue, New York and in 2017 the choir sang the first ever Anglican Service in St Peter\u2019s Basilica, Rome, which was broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Recent concert performances in the UK have included Durufl\u00e9\u2019s Requiem in Gloucester Cathedral as part of the Cheltenham Music Festival, Tallis’s Spem in alium in Cambridge, Oxford and London, and Elgar\u2019s The Dream of Gerontius in The Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford. The choir regularly appears in London at St John\u2019s, Smith Square, The Cadogan Hall and The Temple Church.
\nDescribed by Gramophone as “one of the UK’s finest choral ensembles”, the choir\u2019s recordings are on the Delphian label and have been widely acclaimed. The first release in 2011 was named ‘Gramophone Editor\u2019s Choice’ and the most recent disc was a 2016 \u2018Gramophone Critics\u2019 Choice\u2019. The choir regularly broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 live from Merton College Chapel, and in 2013 was featured in the BBC series Music & the Monarchy.<\/p>\n
Merton College Choir has demonstrated a strong commitment to contemporary music, and has held a new music partnership with Choir & Organ magazine and has collaborated with the Royal Philharmonic Society as part of its \u2018Encore\u2019 scheme. The choir has recently premiered new works from Birtwistle, Chilcott, Dove, MacMillan, Tabakova, Tavener and Weir and in April 2014 gave the world premiere performances of Gabriel Jackson\u2019s Passion in Oxford and New York.<\/p>\n
Benjamin Nicholas is Reed Rubin Organist & Director of Music at Merton College, Oxford and Principal Conductor-Designate of The Oxford Bach Choir. As a conductor he has appeared with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia, Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, The BBC Singers and The Holst Singers. Benjamin Nicholas has been involved in the commissioning of a great many works, and conducted the premieres of Charlotte Bray\u2019s Bach Re-imagined in Southwark Cathedral with the City of London Sinfonia, Howard Goodall\u2019s Veni Sancte Spiritus in Westminster Abbey. He was elected a Bodley Fellow of Merton in 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","location_type":[350136],"event_category":[373314,373457],"area_type":[350139],"event_language":[],"series":[],"event_category_other":[],"class_list":["post-1289490","event","type-event","status-publish","hentry","location_type-indoor-en","event_category-music-en","event_category-music-choir-en","area_type-non-local","search-detail"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artseventsdb.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/event\/1289490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artseventsdb.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/event"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artseventsdb.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/event"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artseventsdb.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1289490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"location_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artseventsdb.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location_type?post=1289490"},{"taxonomy":"event_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artseventsdb.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/event_category?post=1289490"},{"taxonomy":"area_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artseventsdb.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/area_type?post=1289490"},{"taxonomy":"event_language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artseventsdb.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/event_language?post=1289490"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artseventsdb.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=1289490"},{"taxonomy":"event_category_other","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artseventsdb.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/event_category_other?post=1289490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}