Advent Concert by the SND Opera Choir

The Concert by the SND Opera Choir offers a representative survey of European sacred choral music from the nineteenth century to the present day. The programme brings together the Romantic grandeur of Anton Bruckner, the lyrical warmth of César Franck, the English cathedral tradition of Thomas Attwood Walmisley, and the distinctive spiritual world of John Tavener. The first half of the concert concludes with Ralph Vaughan Williams's Fantasia on Christmas Carols, a masterpiece of the English choral repertoire. The second half of the concert is devoted to Camille Saint-Saëns's Messe à quatre voix, Op. 4 – a compelling work by the young composer that reveals his mastery of vocal polyphony, his rich harmonic imagination, and his gift for shaping music on a grand scale.