The Addison Group of Singers Gears Up for Winter

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Autumn classical and carol concerts at local Churches

The Addison Group of Singers is gearing up for its winter events with an oratorio and a carol concert.

They perform for the first time at St John's, Ealing on December 13. It may well be a new venue but the programme is the well-known Addison mix of the familiar, the less familiar and the brand new.

Take Santa Claus. Cuddly old chap with a beard given to mysterious arrivals by sled to deliver presents. In fact, the original, St Nicholas was the Bishop of Myra in ancient Anatolia, patron saint of children, seamen and travelers. Legend has it that a famine struck an island where a butcher slaughtered and butchered three children putting their bodies in a barrel to cure, planning to sell them off as ham. Saint Nicholas, visiting the region to care for the hungry, resurrected the pickled boys with his prayers.

This bizarre interlude is captured by Benjamin Britten in the St Nicholas Cantata which, with its exotic orchestra of strings, piano duet, organ and percussion, makes up the second half of the concert. The audience will be invited to sing along at key-points in the action.

The programme opens with one of the most popular Christmas choral works, the Fantasia on Christmas Carols by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Founded on a number of popular traditional carols such as The Truth Sent From Above and Come All You Worthy Gentlemen the composer also cleverly manages to weave in fragments of other carols during the course of the piece, making a true seasonal celebration.

The Oratorio Choir also sing Bob Chilcott's witty contemporary take on The Twelve Days of Christmas. It would spoil the surprise to reveal exactly what happens but there can't be any doubt that the piece will give people something to talk about during the interval!

Between these two pieces, the Chamber Choir sing Carols by Parry, Mathias and more recent pieces by two leading young British composers - Kenneth Hesketh's arrangement of the traditional carol Sleep, Holy Babe and a new piece especially written for the Addison Singers and receiving its world premiere at this concert - Cradle Song by Richard Causton.

December 4, 2008