by Alice Stainer | 13 October 2023 | Uncategorized
This dynamic and imaginative setting of eight medieval lyrics is the final work that Britten wrote for professional unaccompanied voices (1974-5), which is reflected in his harmonically complex style and the artistic demands – both technical and expressive – he makes...
by Tim Ault | 23 June 2023 | Uncategorized
Vivaldi’s Gloria received its first performance in modern times in September 1939 in Siena, Italy. After Vivaldi’s death in 1741 the work had been forgotten for 200 years. The performance took place as part of the first “Settimana Musicale Senese” (“Sienese musical...
by Tim Ault | 26 February 2023 | Uncategorized
We’re looking forward to performing three psalm settings by Felix Mendelssohn at our concert on 4 March 2023. This note gives some of the background as to how these pieces came to be written. In 1840 a new king came to the throne of Prussia … (At the time,...
by Alice Stainer | 29 February 2020 | Uncategorized
Welcome to our second blog post exploring the programme for our ‘Miserere’ Concerts on Saturday 29th February and Friday 3rd April 2020 in Exeter College Chapel. Tim has looked at the complementary Misereres in detail in the previous blog, so I thought that in this...
by Alice Stainer | 29 February 2020 | Uncategorized
Our next concert “Miserere” (Friday 3rd April, 8pm in Exeter College Chapel) includes two very different settings of the Miserere Mei text (Psalm 51). The first is the famous setting written in 1638 by the Italian composer Gregorio Allegri who was a priest...
by Alice Stainer | 1 July 2019 | Uncategorized
Welcome back to the Oxford Pro Musica blog, this time looking ahead to our exciting concert in the Sheldonian Theatre this Wednesday (8pm, 3rd July). The centrepiece of the programme is, of course, Mozart’s sublime Requiem, which will constitute the second half of the...
