Don't miss our forthcoming concerts!
The Academy Choir and Orchestras celebrate their 30th anniversary this year. Details of our principal remaining concerts are in the accompanying boxes.
Enquiries: 020 8946 7312
Email: events@stjohnswimbledon.org.uk
Saturday 8 May 2010 at 7.30pm
THE EASTER STORY
Booking now open
First performance of a new oratorio in six scenes, with opening and closing choruses, for soloists, chorus and orchestra.
Texts from the Gospels, other New Testament writings, liturgies of the church and sacred poems.
Music by Andrew Edwards
(see below for the composer’s introduction to the oratorio)
Opening Chorus
Scene 1 The Empty Tomb
Scene 2 The Road to Emmaus
Scene 3 Christ and the Disciples
Scene 4 The Draught of Fishes
Scene 5 The Ascension
Scene 6 The Holy Spirit
Final Chorus
WILLIAM KENDALL Tenor Evangelist
CLARE WILKINSON Mezzo Evangelist
ANDREW COPEMAN Jesus
HARRIET JOHNSON Soprano
EMILIA HUGHES Soprano
AMY DALDORPH Mary Magdalen
ANDREW EVANS Cleopas & Disciple
NICHOLAS DYKES Thomas
ANGUS EDWARDS Peter & Disciple
CHARLOTTE EDWARDS Leader
THE ACADEMY CHOIR
THE ACADEMY ORCHESTRA
ANDREW EDWARDS (Conductor)
Tickets: unreserved £15 (students & unemployed, £10) available in advance from:
15 Highbury Road, London SW19 7PR.
Please enclose cheque payable to ASM and a SAE.
Tickets also available at the Church door on the night (subject to availability).
Enquiries: 020 8946 7312.
Saturday 13 November at 7.30pm
HAYDN’S CREATION
(PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF DATE)
St John’s Church, Spencer Hill, Wimbledon
The Academy’s 30th anniversary concert,
launching the 2010 Wimbledon Music Festival
Artists to include:
THE ACADEMY CHOIR AND ORCHESTRA
Leader: Charlotte Edwards
KATHARINE FUGE (Soprano)
ANDREW EDWARDS (Conductor)
THE EASTER STORY
Composer’s introduction
The new oratorio’s libretto consists of the Gospel accounts of the resurrection and post-resurrection story, interleaved with other passages from the New Testament, the liturgy of the Church, and sacred poems by Spenser, Vaughan, Herbert and St Thomas Aquinas.
Set for soloists, choir, strings, winds, brass and bells, The Easter Story is melodious from beginning to end, with many arresting chords, modulations and leitmotifs. The music seeks to capture not only the joys and triumphs of the resurrection and ascension stories but also the tense uncertainties and wistful anxieties of Christ’s disciples and friends in the early days after the crucifixion and the haunting, mystical quality of their exchanges with the risen Christ. The moods, sounds and even the styles change with the changing texts, and there is a teasing interplay of concord and discord.
The new score includes echoes of the sound worlds we associate with a wide range of past composers, not least Purcell, Schubert, Schumann, Wagner, Strauss, Elgar, Debussy, Stravinsky, Bartok, Poulenc, Messiaen and Shostakovich.