Riga Dome Cathedral

Wednesday, 2007, August 8^th, 7 PM

Cēsis St. John Church

Prelude

Choir of King’s College, Cambridge (UK)

Stephen Cleobury, director

Inessa Galante (soprano)

Internationally recognised as the pre-eminent representative of the great British church music tradition, the Choir owes its existence to King Henry VI who envisaged the daily singing of services in his magnificent chapel. This remains the Choir's raison d'être, and is an important part of the lives of its sixteen choristers, who are educated on generous scholarships at  King’s College School, and the fourteen choral scholars and two organ scholars, who study a variety of subjects in the College itself.

Today's Choir derives its worldwide fame and reputation from the annual broadcast of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols which is heard on radio by millions all over the world and which this year will celebrate the 75th anniversary of its first broadcast, together with the now well-established television programme Carols from King's. It is also famous for its many recordings for EMI and Decca, and for its international touring programme. In recent seasons the Choir has travelled to the USA and Canada, South Africa and Australia, and has made a world tour including concerts in Hong Kong, Macau, Taipei, Tokyo and the USA.Concerts have also recently been given in Copenhagen's European City of Culture celebrations, the Brussels Conservatoire, the Bruges Early Music Festival, Paris's Musée d'Orsay, in Germany, Greece and further afield in Barbados and Bermuda. Future plans include a concert in Bach's church, St Thomas's in Leipzig, a tour to Germany, concerts in Holland and Belgium and, in 2004, trips to Istanbul and the Far East.

The Choir also performs in London, appearing regularly in all the major halls. This season they have already performed St Matthew Passion with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Kurt Masur at the Royal Festival Hall and they will be appearing at the Spitalfields Festival and singing their regular Christmas programme at The Royal Albert Hall with the Philharmonia. They also continue their own series of concerts at St. John's, Smith Square. Performances outside London this year include concerts at the Brighton Dome, Birmingham Symphony Hall, and a return to the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, following their success there last season with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. The choristers will join Stephen Cleobury's other choir, the BBC Singers, for a Prom this summer.
            The Choir has worked with many distinguished soloists and has enjoyed a long association with orchestras such as the Philharmonia and the English Chamber Orchestra, both in the concert hall and in recordings. A partnership with the period instrument orchestra, The Brandenburg Consort, resulted in CDs of Handel's Messiah, and CDs and DVDs of Bach's St Matthew and St John Passions. The choir currently records exclusively for EMI and recent discs have included Handel's Coronation Anthems, Bach's Magnificat with the Academy of Ancient Music, Rachmaninov's Vespers (which won the first ever Classical Brit Award), a collection of popular hymns with brass ensemble, and a live recording of A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. A new DVD, Anthems from King's has been released and follows last season's DVD of Carols from King's, which also contains historic footage of the choir with Boris Ord. The Choir's latest disc is a recording of Vivaldi's Gloria, Dixit Dominus and Magnificat, again with AAM, and a recording of music by Domineco Scarlatti is shortly to be released. More Rachmaninov, this time the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, is to be recorded in the summer.

Contemporary music is also an important part of the Choir's repertoire, and the College has a programme of commissioning works from some of the foremost composers working today; Robin Holloway was commissioned for last year's carol service and John Woolrich wrote Spring in Winter for the carol service in 2001. Others recently commissioned have included Thomas Adès, Richard Rodney Bennett, Judith Bingham, Diana Burrell, John Casken, Peter Maxwell Davies, Stephen Dodgson, Jonathan Dove, Alexander Goehr, Jonathan Harvey, James MacMillan, Nicholas Maw, Arvo Pärt, Stephen Paulus, John Rutter, Peter Sculthorpe, John Tavener, Jan Peter Wagemanns and Judith Weir.

I would happily sit in King’s College Chapel listening to this choir sing for the rest of my days