Salisbury Chamber Chorus and Nova Foresta Players

Bernstein Chichester Psalms and Poulenc Gloria,

in Salisbury and Lymington this November

This November, Salisbury Chamber Chorus will be collaborating with Nova Foresta once more for a concert featuring two of the most exciting choral pieces of the last century.

Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms was written for the Southern Cathedrals Festival in 1965. This festival is a showcase for the Cathedral Choirs of Salisbury, Winchester, and Chichester, where the 1965 festival was held. Bernstein’s mix of the theatrical and the sacred became an instant classic, its haunting melodies and

exhilarating percussion proving to be irresistible. It’s no surprise that the second movement featured heavily in last year’s film about Bernstein, Maestro.

Francis Poulenc also wrote for the stage, and his Gloria, premiered in Boston in 1961, is another piece of dramatic rhythms and gorgeous melodies. One of his most popular pieces, its mood is often grand, echoing the great Baroque choral works; often quirky, with Poulenc’s signature halting, spacious motifs; and in the second movement, quirkily jolly, inspired apparently by the sight of a group of monks running round playing football in their habits.

To complete the programme, a chorale of nine members of the Chorus will perform Poulenc’s beautiful unaccompanied Quatre motets pour le temps de Noël.

For fans of Bernstein and Poulenc, this is a concert not to be missed. But for anyone who doesn’t know these pieces, this is an opportunity to hear two thrilling highlights of twentieth-century choral and orchestral music by two of the South’s best ensembles.