Ceremony of Carols

Exeter Festival Chorus

Saturday 9 December 2017 at 7.30pm in Buckfast Abbey

Ruth Faber harp 
Nigel Perrin conductor

Britten: A Ceremony of Carols
Poulenc: Quatre Motets pour le Temps de Noël
Chilcott: Advent Antiphons
Praetorius: In dulci jubilo
Tavener: Ikon of the Nativity and A Christmas Round

Our winter concert, in the splendid surroundings of Buckfast Abbey, celebrates the Christmas story with a stimulating mix of music.

Britten’s brilliantly conceived dramatic cantata, A Ceremony of Carols, was composed during his hazardous journey across the Atlantic in 1942. We shall be singing the 1943 version for full choir. Britten’s wonderful settings of Latin and medieval texts have a virtuosic harp accompaniment.

Poulenc’s Quatre motets, composed in 1952, joyfully recount the Nativity story in his distinctive style of contrasts between austere textures and rich sensuous harmonies.

The programme is completed by carols and four short works, three contemporary pieces and the other taking us back to 17th century Germany.