LIGHT & SHADE Comes to Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium of Music

Conductor Sam Allchurch and Sydney Chamber Choir travel the musical landscape of Saxony, through the magnificent choral music of Bach and his outstanding predecessors, in a joyous concert of German Baroque, Light and Shade, at Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, on Saturday, November 19 at 7.30pm.

The concert's masterwork, marking his 350th anniversary year, is from the Baroque genius Heinrich Schütz, his profound requiem of faith and hope, Musikalische Exequien. Set to exquisite funeral texts gathered by a prince meticulously planning his death, and defying dark times of war and plague, this is funeral music that stubbornly refuses to submit to despair.

Backed by string ensemble The Muffat Collective, the Choir also sings a moving cantata by the neglected 17th century composer Franz Tunder set to a Martin Luther text; and the most compact and joyous of Bach's motets, Lobet den Herren.

"I've often travelled in Saxony, and followed where Bach live and worked, but he wasn't the one genius just springing up from no-where," says Sam Allchurch.

"This heartland of the Reformation produced such astonishing choral music, repurposing Catholic musical traditions and brilliantly matching texts to dramatic choral voices."

"My first concert for the Choir in 2017 celebrated the highly emotional music of German romanticism. And since taking over the reins, I've wanted to submerge myself - and audiences - in German baroque. I've loved it for so long I can't imagine a musical life without it."

Echoing Schütz, Allchurch has commissioned professional church musician and Sydney-based composer Brooke Shelley who, he says, draws on that same baroque skill at creating exquisite choral textures. Heavenly Father also matches Schütz' interest in the circular nature of life and death, with Shelley reflecting here on the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

The Choir will also sing Shelley's ebullient piece, Praise the Lord; and British composer John Rutter's German-inspired Hymn to the Creator of Light, a moving celebration of the mysteries of the divine.

Sam Allchurch has been Artistic Director of the Choir since 2019. He is also associate AD of Gondwana Choirs plus Director of Music at Sydney's historic Christ Church St Laurence. Next he conducts a studio recording of the award-winning Requiem by the Choir's former AD, Paul Stanhope.

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