East Sussex Community Choir to perform Haydn’s Nelson Mass
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Under the direction of Nicholas Houghton, East Sussex Community Choir will be performing Haydn’s Nelson Mass in Lewes Town Hall on Saturday, March 22.
More information at www.eastsussexcommunitychoir.org
Tickets £22 & £17 (Under 18s free) from tinyurl.com/NelsonMass25 or from Lewes TIC.
Spokeswoman Catherine Sandbrook said: “The flourishing 80-strong choir will be joined by an orchestra and an A-list line-up of soloists, Alexandra Kidgell (soprano), Rebecca Leggett (mezzo-soprano), Paul Austin Kelly (tenor) and Andrew Davies (bass).
“Originally called a Mass for Troubled Times, the greatest of Haydn’s masses came to be known as the Nelson Mass because its first performance took place around the time that news of Nelson’s defeat of Napoleon was spreading around Europe. The work captures the moods of those times, from a menacing opening, through moving drama, to triumph and jubilation. Mozart said of his friend’s piece ‘Haydn alone has the secret both of making me smile and of touching my innermost soul.’
“The programme also includes Vivaldi’s powerful setting of Psalm 110, the Dixit Dominus, and his Nulla in Mundo, considered to be one of his most beautiful and moving motets, written for solo soprano.”