CONCERTS
OUR NEXT CONCERT
A blossoming of songs celebrating all things summery.
The Scottish Chamber Choir comes to Kelso to celebrate the beginning of summer with a host of golden choral pieces. From dawn in Sheena Phillips’ celebratory Aurora rutilat to Eric Whitacre’s caressing Sleep, the programme radiates joy in the unfolding beauty and ease of the long days and soft nights of summer.
Gerald Finzi’s 1939 setting of Seven Poems of Robert Bridges weaves gossamer vocal lines into intricate harmonies catching at the fleeting beauty of a flower, a phrase of music, a lost love. These are exquisite miniatures with a purity of emotion that finds sadness and solace in the passing moment, the “swift unceasing flight” of joy.
Andrew Carvel’s Summer Sun sets the poem from Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses and was commissioned for the choir’s 50 th anniversary in 2018. The composer’s musical direction for the performers is “calm and shimmering” and this is a sweet and lithe evocation of the golden power of the sun, “to please the child, to paint the rose, the gardener of the world he goes”.
At the heart of this bouquet of beautiful miniatures is Palestrina’s Missa brevis. Amongst his many settings of the mass, this is one of the composer’s shortest and sweetest. Graceful lines and spacious polyphony will fill Kelso Old Parish Church with sumptuous sounds. The contrast could hardly be greater between Palestrina and the exuberantly crazy mood of Finnish composer Jaakko Mantyjarvi’s Pseudo-Yoik. It’s impossible to describe, so come and hear it!
March 2025
Northern Lights, our concert on Saturday 8 March at Stockbridge Parish Church, was a delicious smörgåsbord of choral pieces from past and present composers of Baltic and Nordic countries.
In these northern lands the extremes of nature seem to fuel an understanding of the myriad possibilities of the human voice. Join us for a thrilling exploration of this vast and surprising musical landscape.
Icelandic composers Þorkell Sigurbjörnsson and Anna Thorvaldsdottir start from ancient texts and transport them to a primal yet uniquely contemporary soundworld.
Estonian Urmas Sisask combines old-world polyphony with unexpected rhythmic splashes.
Danish composer Per Nørgård and Norwegian Knut Nystedt deconstruct traditional harmonies but increase musical and emotional effects with their magical shifting sounds.
Latvian Ēriks Ešenvalds weaves folktale with the records of Arctic explorers to thrilling effect while Jaakko Mäntyjärvi creates a piece of vocal theatre with his humorous look at the stereotype of Lapland folk music.
Norwegian Ola Gjeilo sets words from the Song of Solomon to a spare score evoking the terrible beauty of the northern lights.
Add beautiful pieces by the godfathers of Nordic and Baltic music, Jean Sibelius and Arvo Pärt, and we have a concert brimming with the elemental energy and compelling unpredictability of the north.
The programme included the Edinburgh première of The Lost Lichts, our recent commission from Ailie Robertson, setting the words of three female poets from north-east Scotland – a bright new star in this northern firmament.
Feeback on the premiere of this piece at our concert in Aberdeen in May 2024 included ……..
“Ailie’s (Robertson) musical rendition of “Hallowe’en” is heartbreakingly beautiful.”
23rd November 2024
“A splendid performance in every way with excellent soloists and instrumentalists. Wonderfully energetic.”
Concerts in Season 2023-4
The programme included a new commission from Ailie Robertson.
‘The Lost Lichts‘ sets three poems by North East poets: ‘Hallowe’en‘ by Violet Jacob (1863 – 1946), ‘A Recruit for the Gordons‘ by Mary Symon (1863 – 1938) and ‘Cotton Grasses‘ by Marion Angus (1865 – 1946).
Ailie is a multi-award winning composer and performer based on the West Coast of Scotland. She has been commissioned by some of the world’s most prestigious cultural institutions including the BBC Proms, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Scottish Ensemble, The Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Red Note Ensemble, Bang on a Can, Cappella Nova, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and the Riot Ensemble. She was Composer-in-Residence with Sound Festival and Glyndebourne Opera and she has won multiple prizes at the Scottish Awards for New Music and her work has been supported by the PRS Foundation, The Vaughan Williams Foundation, Creative Scotland and Sound and Music. Her work has been performed world-wide and broadcast on international radio.
“It was a lovely experience to hear such wonderful music yesterday evening. Rheinberger’s powerful Mass amply filled St Machar’s ancient and venerable space, as did all the chosen pieces. Such a feast for the ears during Trinity week! “
“Your choir gave us such a thrilling and moving experience. …(we) wish we could hear it all again, because there was so much variety and magic in both performance and choice of pieces. …Ailie’s (Robertson) musical rendition of “Hallowe’en” is heartbreakingly beautiful.”
The previous concert was presented in St Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh on Saturday 2 March. It had to be moved there at the last minute but attracted a very good audience.
We are grateful to St Giles’ Cathedral for facilitating this at very short notice.
November’s concert
“We both really enjoyed the concert last night – what a high standard! I have sung the Bernstein and I know many challenges it presents. The other pieces certainly didn’t seem any easier. We really enjoyed the Argentinian Mass, which I noticed had many audience members silently foot-tapping. It was a terrific performance all round, and we are now looking forward to your concert of Renaissance music.“
“Your guest soloists were excellent and really fitted the bill perfectly for the parts you asked them to sing. The Bernstein Ps 23 was glorious – that 14 year old voice was made for the solo. She’ll have an excellent voice in years to come, but she’ll never perform that solo as an adult as well as she did last night.“
Season 2022-2023
Joint concert with Calton Consort and Meadows Chamber Orchestra
in St Cuthbert’s Parish Church in November 2022
