How do you keep the music playing?
Saturday 18 September 2021, St Olave’s Church, York
Thank you for joining us for our first performance since we last sang together, on 12 March 2021!
Tonight’s music features some of our favourite pieces that we wanted to sing together, and share with you, just because we now can! Over lockdown, we met over zoom for virtual rehearsals, recorded virtual performances from our own homes – but I’m sure you agree, it is not the same. The first four pieces are also the last four pieces we sang, as part of Compline during Lent in York Minster, and at the suggestion of Guy early into lockdown, we just had to begin with Parsons’ beautiful ‘Ave Maria’! We’ve also included the date of the last time we performed most of the music, with Stephen Paulus’ ‘The Road Home’ only performed ‘virtually’ last May. Paulus’ Christmas music featured in recording sessions on 10 and 11 March last year, and we’re looking forward to completing that project next year. We will be performing Alexander Lestrange’s arrangement of Legrand’s song ‘How do you keep the music playing?’ for the first time.
Music from Compline, 12 March 2020
Ave Maria – Robert Parsons (c.1535-72)
Lumen ad revelationem – William Byrd (c.1543-1623)
Te lucis ante terminum – Thomas Tallis (c.1505-85)
In pace – William Blitheman (c.1525-91)
Abendlied – Josef Rheinberger (1839-1901) (last performed July 2018)
Nunc Dimittis – Gustav Holst (1874-1934) (last performed November 2018)
My soul, there is a country – C. Hubert Parry (1848-1918) (last performed November 2018)
The Bluebird – Charles Stanford (1852-1924) (last performed June 2018)
Steal away – Michael Tippett (1905-98) (last performed July 2019)
Criosda (from Dusk Songs) – Kerry Andrew (last performed October 2019)
Rivers of Light – Erik Esenwalds (b. 1977)( last performed October 2019)
Bogorodiste Devo – Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943)
The Road Home – Stephen Paulus (1949-2014) (first/last performed virtually May 2021)
Sleep – Eric Whitacre (b.1970) (last performed September 2019)
How do you keep the music playing? – Michel Legrand (1932-2019) arr. Alexander L’estrange (b.1974)