One of Surrey’s leading choirs, Epsom Chamber Choir launches its 50th season with an evening of choral masterworks separated by a span of 400 years.
Although more than four centuries have passed, the sublime richness of sound created in the 16th century by ‘polyphony’, the glorious intertwining of vocal lines, is unsurpassed. Palestrina, Lassus, Gesualdo and Guerrero are four masters of this style, and their music will be resonating around the choir’s home venue, the beautiful church of St Martin of Tours, which is Epsom’s largest historical building.
As with many creative geniuses, the personal lives of these four composers were a little less glorious than their music, with kidnap, financial ruin and even murder being in the mix. Perhaps, though, it’s best to let the music speak for itself. Among the works being performed are the Missa Paschalis by Orlando de Lassus, Palestrina’s Tu es Petrus and Gesualdo’s Aestimatus Sum, which inhabits its very own extraordinary harmonic world.
Fast-forwarding to the 20th century, the sacred settings on offer are Stravinsky’s Ave Maria and Messiaen’s exquisite miniature O Sacrum Convivium, both of which contrast with the large-scale Mass for Double Choir by Swiss composer Frank Martin.
