Sarah Tynan soprano
Judy Louie Brown mezzo-soprano
Benjamin Hulett tenor
Neal Davies baritone
Crouch End Festival Chorus
David Temple conductor
THE HANOVER BAND
BEETHOVEN Missa Solemnis
Crouch End Festival Chorus performs one of Beethoven’s greatest choral works with The Hanover Band in the beautifully refurbished theatre at Alexandra Palace.
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It was in the latter part of Beethoven’s life, when his deafness was profound, that he composed his monumental Missa Solemnis.
The choral writing, with extremes of dynamics and speed, is amongst the most virtuosic in the entire choral repertoire, and it is only choirs of great power, flexibility and musicianship that can deliver it. With this Mass he achieved a new musical, dramatic and liturgical synthesis – an apotheosis comparable to that of his Ninth Symphony. It is an enigmatic work, with an underlying programmatic structure that suggests ‘hovering guardian angels’ and contemporary invasions and battles – and it is for the performers to reveal this imagery and architecture.
With Crouch End Festival Chorus, The Hanover Band, four world-class soloists and David Temple, the stage is set for a brilliant illumination of this iconic work.
Sarah Tynan soprano
Judy Louie Brown mezzo-soprano
Benjamin Hulett tenor
Neal Davies baritone
Crouch End Festival Chorus
David Temple conductor
THE HANOVER BAND
“Strings are gleaming and engaged, their woodwind sublime, their brass bright and flexible, their percussion alert….”
HANOVER (Not Hannover; Germany) In terms of British history the majority of the music we play is from the Hanoverian period. Hanover also refers to Hanover Square in London, where Haydn performed his symphonies and arias in the Salomon Concerts in the 1790’s.
BAND (ref: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians)
‘An instrumental ensemble, larger than a chamber ensemble. Thus the ’24 violins’ of Louis XIV were called ‘la grande bande’ to distinguish them from Lully’s ‘petits violons’, and Charles II’s similar ensemble was known as ‘the King’s Band’. By extension, ‘band’ came to mean an orchestra in colloquial British usage’.
THE HANOVER BAND a period name for a period orchestra.