Birmingham Bach Choir get Espressivo!
Birmingham Bach Choir are ready to leap into summer with Espressivo!, an eclectic selection of Italian choral music spanning four centuries.
They will perform the programme at St Albarn The Martyr church, Highgate, in the second city on June 30.
With a programme of both sacred and secular choral music, highlights include madrigals by two of the greatest Italians of their day, late Renaissance composers Claudio Monteverdi and Carlo Gesualdo, the Prince of Venosa who lived a controversial life full of tales of love, murder and a witch.
The programme also features choral works by versatile Baroque composer Antonio Lotti, who produced masses, cantatas, madrigals, and around 30 operas; the celebrated Venetian Giovanni Gabrieli; lauded Renaissance organist and composer Girolamo Frescobaldi; Gioachino Rossini, the 18th century writer famed for The Barber of Seville; and concludes with three magical part-songs, written in the early 1940s by choral master Ildebrando Pizzetti.
Choir chair Sarah Platt said: “This night of Italian music includes unusual choral pieces by composers perhaps better known for other works, as well as some real surprises by lesser known figures. There’s real variety, from intensely moving Renaissance madrigals to Pizzetti’s beautiful combination of poetry and biblical texts.”
The show at the Conybere Street church starts at 7.30pm with tickets costing £16 and £14 for concessions.
Tickets for the special performance are available from the choir’s website here.
