CHOIR 2000 presents a first for Swiss choral favourite
April 5, 2009 by wfr.editor
Filed under Village News
Suter: Le Laudi (1924) - UK premiere
A popular Swiss choral work is set to get its UK premiere in Cambridge this summer. Le Laudi di San Francesco d’Assisi is an oratorio by Hermann Suter.
The piece is a setting of the much-loved saint’s Canticle of the Sun, for an adult chorus, children’s choir, orchestra and four soloists.
Although Le Laudi is extremely popular with choral societies in Switzerland, the piece has yet to make its mark on the British choral scene. Thanks to funding from the Arts Council, a Cambridgeshire choir are set to change all that. Choir 2000 will perform the piece at Cambridge’s West Road Concert Hall alongside Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony on the evening of the summer solstice. After the concert, the choir will make the vocal scores of the piece available for loan, so that other UK choirs can sample the work.
Le Laudi will be performed by Choir 2000 with the Cambridge Orchestra, the Sawston Junior Choir and soloists Amy Moore, Louise Crane, Andrew Kennedy and Ben Davies. The concert will take place at the West Road Concert Hall in Cambridge at 7.30pm on Sunday, June 21st 2009. Tickets are available from the Corn Exchange Box Office (01223 357851), from choir members or on the night @ £12.00 (£10.00 concessions, £5.00 students).
The performance will be preceded at 7.00pm by an introductory talk given by Dr Timothy Carney, Associate Professor of Music at the Chaminade University of Honolulu. Dr Carney wrote his doctoral thesis about Suter and Le Laudi, and conducted the first US performance of the work in Honolulu at the 3rd Annual Hawaii International Choral Festival in July 2000.
For further information about Choir 2000 or this performance, contact Beatrix Bown on 01223 561635 or beatrix@ntlworld.com, or visit the website www.choir2000.org
The Choir 2000 Choral Day will be held on Saturday 16 May, when noted choral conductor David Hill, will rehearse and conduct Fauré’s Requiem.
The Choral Day is open to all. Enrolment fee for the day is £12.00. For Application Forms contact 01223 561635 or e-mail info2000@choir2000.org.
