Pinsuti's next concert features several movements from the stunning Welcome all wonders: a Christmas cantata. This is a unique work by the composer David Bednall, for choir, organ and trumpet. It celebrates the Christmas story through an imaginative selection of poetry and liturgical texts, telling the familiar story in a new and multifaceted way. The texts come from a wide range of authors including Alexander Pope, Isaac Watts, Longfellow, Milton and Christina Rossetti, as well as a couple of Magnificat antiphons for the Christmas season and some early mediaeval Latin hymns.
The work is relatively new: it was originally commissioned in 2011 by The Queen’s College, Oxford. Bednall says that he wanted to make the music “emotive and immediate”, and this is very much what the audience will experience. Alongside the expected, traditional rejoicing, he also explores the darker aspects of the story, such as the massacre of the innocents, where he reflects the danger and tension. As a result, there are considerable contrasts of mood and musical texture throughout the piece. There is space to rejoice, space to ponder, to be desolate and finally to rejoice once more.
Pinsuti will complete the programme with some more familiar, traditional items for Christmas.
It should be quite a stimulating evening and we hope you will join us.