Choir of King's College London

Celebrate the season with a beautiful lunchtime performance by the Choir of King’s College London, one of England's leading university ensembles, presenting a festive programme featuring Poulenc’s Quatre motets pour le temps de Noël. This programme takes four ‘scenes’ from the Nativity story, perhaps as a painter might view them, and explores the different ways that composers have brought them to life over the ages.

Programme:
I: The Baby
Poulenc I. O magnum mysterium (from Quatre Motets pour le temps de Noël)
Traditional Coventry Carol
Kristina Arakelyan Ave maris stella
Sally Beamisn In the stillness

II: Shepherds
Poulenc II. Quem vidistis pastores (from Quatre Motets pour le temps de Noël)
Berlioz The Shepherds’ Farewell
Edward Nesbit The Shepherds
Rutter Shepherd’s Pipe Carol

III: Magi
Poulenc III. Videntes stellam (from Quatre Motets pour le temps de Noël)
James Macmillan O radiant dawn
Cornelius The Three Kings
Rutter Candlelight Carol

IV: Celebration
Poulenc IV. Hodie Christus natus est (from Quatre Motets pour le temps de Noël)
Byrd Laetentur caeli
Thomas Hyde Make we joy now in this fest
Trad. arr. Charles Wood Ding! Dong! Merrily on high

Performers and biography:
Choir of King’s College London

The Choir of King’s College London is one of the leading university choirs in England, and has existed since its founding by William Henry Monk in the middle of the 19th century. The Choir today consists of some thirty Choral Scholars reading a variety of subjects. The Choir’s principal role at King’s is to provide music for Chapel worship, with weekly Eucharist and Evensong services offered during term, as well as various other services. Services from the College Chapel are regularly broadcast on BBC Radio. The Choir also frequently sings for worship outside the university, including at Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s Cathedral.

In addition, the Choir gives many concert performances. Recent festival appearances in England include the Barnes Music Festival, London Handel Festival, Oundle International Festival, St Albans International Organ Festival, Ryedale Festival, Spitalfields Festival, and the Christmas and Holy Week Festivals at St. John’s Smith Square. The Choir has made many recordings, and enjoys a longstanding relationship with Delphian Records. Recent recordings have been acclaimed in the press as ‘a performance of astonishing intensity and musicality’—Gramophone, ‘an intimate, highly charged performance’—The Observer, and ‘a colourful performance . . . Joseph Fort’s superbly drilled Choir of King’s College London singing with shedloads of oomph’—theartsdesk.com.