The Cherwell Singers perform Schubert

The Cherwell Singers devotes an entire evening to celebrating Schubert's best and least known works of choral music.

The University Church, Oxford

Saturday November 10th, 7.30pm

James Brown - director

Anna Sideris - soprano

Martin Cousin - piano

The Viennese composer Franz Schubert is most famous for straddling the Classical and Romantic periods in music, and for producing over one thousand pieces of music during his brief thirty-one years of life. This term the Cherwell Singers devotes an entire evening to celebrating his best and least known works of choral music.

The Mass in G of 1815 is the most popular and frequently performed of his eight mass settings, and we will be performing it in its original version for strings and organ. Also utilising the strings and organ are two less well known settings by Schubert of the medieval Latin hymn, Tantum Ergo.

In the first half of the concert we will be joined by pianist Martin Cousin who plays a prominent role in the little known “Mirjams Siegesgesang” or “Song of Miriam”, written in the last year of Schubert’s life (1828). This is a dramatic setting of the story from the book of Exodus of the victory of the Israelites as they crossed the Red Sea in safety, unlike the Egyptian army who drowned before their eyes. This work features soprano soloist Anna Sideris, who will also perform the much loved “Ave Maria”, probably the most often performed of Schubert’s many songs. Not to be outdone, the ladies of the choir will perform the equally well loved setting of Psalm 23, again with its original accompaniment for piano.

We do hope you can join us in the University Church for this celebration of the familiar and unfamiliar works of one of the worlds most celebrated composers for the human voice.