From 1610 to 2013, and from Italy to Britain via France and Norway, A Handful of Singers’ first concert of the year provides a programme full of sumptuous textures and colours.
The ethereal quality of Allegri’s famous Miserere, written 20 years later, is paired with James MacMillan’s substantial and moving setting of Psalm 51 – also called Miserere.
Monteverdi’s Mass for 6 voices ‘In illo tempore’, dates from the same year as his Vespers, and gives the choir the opportunity to recreate his unique, rich sound-world.
The programme is completed by Eric Whitacre’s Sainte Chapelle, Ola Gjeilo’s Northern Lights (which evokes the powerful beauty of the aurora borealis) and Paul Mealor’s atmospheric setting of Ubi Caritas, written for the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton.
A Handful of Singers, Bath’s highly acclaimed chamber choir of 24 voices, has been performing in and around Bath since its inception in 2002.
The choir is directed by its conductor Christopher Finch, winner of the 2010 BBC Choir of the Year. Under his direction, A Handful of Singers has developed a wide repertoire of music, classical and contemporary, serious and not too serious, and has gained an enviable reputation for the quality and vibrancy of its performances.