Derbyshire Singers air church choral music at home and abroad

Church choral music over 400 years will be explored in the Derbyshire Singers' summer concert.
Anna DennisAnna Dennis
Anna Dennis

The ensemble will air work from the 17th to 20th centuries at St Peter’s Church, Edensor, on Saturday, July 9.

To anyone who considers church music dreary and sombre this will be an eye-opener: these pieces are by turn joyful, contemplative, pleading, rejoicing.

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The music of Allegri and Palestrina was performed in St Peter’s, Rome; Gabrieli and Monteverdi composed under the soaring domes of St Mark’s, Venice, Pitoni and Scarlatti by the Duomo in Florence.

Rossini’s first love was church music: the ‘O salutaris’ is intense and moving, as is Rachmaninov’s ‘Bogoroditsye Dyevo’.

Haydn wrote ‘Te Deum’ for the Empress of Austria; Lord Nelson heard this, and the Mass that came to bear his name, at a concert during his triumphant journey across Europe after the Battle of the Nile.

The Derbyshire Singers welcome the return of organist John Keys and of Anna Dennis, the internationally renowned soprano whose career has seen her perform in Berlin, Tokyo and New York as well as at the BBC Proms.

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In August the Derbyshire Singers will perform in churches in Tuscany where these works would have been heard four centuries ago.

Saturday’s concert starts at 7.30pm. Tickets £13, available from Robert Young Florists in Matlock, Natural Choice in Ashbourne (01335 346096), or visit the website www.
derbyshiresingers.org

www.derbyshiresingers.org .

Florists in Matlock, Natural Choice in Ashbourne (01335-346096), or online via the website

www.derbyshiresingers.org .

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