Oxford Festival of the Arts has got one final hurrah up its sleeve to add to this year’s impressive line-up as The Sydney Philharmonia Choirs head straight to Oxford from BBC PROMS on Thursday July 30.
The 140 choristers, led by Brett Weymark, will present Faire is the Heaven – a dynamic programme of inspiring hymns and anthems, including Parry’s I Was Glad and Gardiner’s Evening Hymn, alongside works by celebrated Australian contemporary composers, Joe Twist and Alice Chance.
‘this is one of my favourite festival additions in all my years here’
A big coup for Oxford then? OFA’s Michelle Castelletti says: “One of the closest things Sydney Philharmonia Choirs has to the magnificent space of an English cathedral is the vast and iconic Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House – which they call their ‘home’.
“So while these works may have been written for coronations, jubilees, and services in great English cathedrals, they sound just as transcendent in the cathedral-esque Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House and churches in the New South Wales countryside, where they performed these works just last year.”
‘Just last year, these singers performed these works at the Sydney Opera House’
“Now they bring the music ‘home’ to Oxford Festival of the Arts, which will be an exhilarating and rousing finale to what has been one of my favourite festival additions in all my years here,” she says proudly.
So what can we expect on July 30 at Oxford Town Hall? “A stirring programme of cathedral classics, works that both challenge the singer and enrich the listener, including Hubert Parry’s famous coronation anthem I Was Glad and the soaring Evening Hymn by Henry Balfour Gardiner alongside hymns and anthems for choir and organ by Arthur Bliss, Edgar Bainton and Benjamin Britten.
“Plus the centrepiece and namesake of the concert – Sir William Harris’ sublime Faire is the Heaven – set to words by poet Edmund Spenser, and a special Aussie treat – works by composers Alice Chance and Joe Twist.
Conducted by Brett Weymark, one of Australia’s foremost choral conductors, the Artistic & Music Director of SPC has conducted the choirs throughout Australia and internationally, uniting people through music for more than five decades.
With more than 2000 singers across six ensembles, SPC performs around 50 performances a year, from blockbuster choral classics and film soundtracks to heart-warming musical theatre and exciting premieres.
Faire is the Heaven, Thursday July 30, Oxford Town Hall. Book at https://artsfestivaloxford.org/events/faire-is-the-heaven-sydney-philharmonia-choirs/
