Sydney Chamber Choir celebrates the harmonic power of double and triple choirs, separated in space or closely interwoven, in a glorious concert of contemporary, Renaissance and Australian choral-making.

The brilliance of brass and the warmth of the human voice, in a concert of resonances and reflections. From Renaissance masters Gabrieli and Schütz, the original ‘surround sound’, with multiple choirs calling to each other in glorious harmony. From British mystic John Tavener, a tantalising journey into eternity, with voices overlapping like waves on sand.

Splendour & Mystery will feature two famous settings of the Magnificat, by Renaissance masters Heinrich Schütz, and his Venetian mentor Giovanni Gabrieli. This stunning polyphony, along with Gabrieli’s joyous, multi-part Jubilate Deo, will be enriched with the grandeur of early “brass”, provided by Sydney ensemble Camerata Antica.

With multiple choirs of voices and historic instruments, singing out across vast spaces, this was the ‘surround sound’ of past centuries!  Led by Matthew Manchester, the ensemble features sackbutts (an early trombone), and the cornetto – a unique wind instrument, part flute, part trumpet, with no modern descendant.

Swiss composer Frank Martin finished his sublime Mass for Double Choir in 1926 but left it in a drawer untouched for 40 years. Performing it was, he said, “a matter between me and God”. Conductor and the Choir’s Music Director Sam Allchurch has long wanted to program this, one of the greatest choral works of the modern age.

The concert also includes two celebrated Australian works: Heavenly Father by Sydney composer and professional church musician, Brooke Shelley, whose fine choral textures explore the circular nature of life and death; and Clare Maclean’s exquisite Christ the King, where multiple voices refract out of a single line of pure melody.

Finally, with overlapping harmonies and silences like waves on the sand, is John Tavener’s transcendent Hymn to Mother of God which, following his conversion, draws on the mystical traditions of the Greek Orthodox Church.

ARTISTS

Sydney Chamber Choir

Sam Allchurch
Conductor

Camerata Antica led by Matthew Manchester

PROGRAM

Giovanni Gabrieli
Jubilate Deo
Magnificat

Clare Maclean
Christ the King

Frank Martin
Mass for Double Choir

Heinrich Schütz
Deutsches Magnificat

Brooke Shelley
Heavenly Father

John Tavener
A Hymn to the Mother of God

This concert will also be streamed on Australian Digital Concert Hall – $24 Live stream tickets here