Danesborough Chorus

Future concerts

Saturday 28 March 2020, St Mary's Parish Church, Woburn, 19:30

Join us for a feast of Baroque masterpieces by Antonio Vivaldi and Georg Philipp Telemann plus a beautiful and moving work by Cecilia McDowall.

Together with what is one of the best-loved works in the choral repertoire, Vivaldi’s Gloria, we will also perform his unjustly neglected Magnificat. This version retains the choruses from his earlier Magnificat. To these richly chromatic movements he added five new virtuosic solo arias to create a work that is a must for fans of Vivaldi’s sacred music.

Telemann’s Suite in D comes from Set 2 of his famous collection Tafelmusik. During his lifetime, Telemann was an immensely popular composer because his music is so full of tuneful melodies, rich harmony, and writing that suits each instrument perfectly. The Suite in D shows Telemann at his best, with a succession of dazzling duets for oboe and trumpet.

As a contrast, we will also perform Cecilia McDowall’s Ave Maris Stella, a work that is rapidly becoming a modern classic. An anthem to peace, it was first performed in Portsmouth Cathedral on Armistice Day 2001. McDowall’s compositions are full of warm dissonances and unexpected harmonic progressions and Ave Maris Stella is no exception. It is a sumptuously alluring piece, and the beautifully tranquil choral and instrumental writing that pervades the whole work gives it an almost mystical aura .