WRTI invites you to experience The Crossing chamber choir’s 2015 Christmas concert, The Crossing @ Christmas, recorded live on December 18th at The Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill.
This annual performance is known for creating an aura of tranquility, and has become a holiday tradition for many vocal music lovers throughout our region. You can hear this year’s concert on WRTI - on the radio or online - on Christmas Day, Friday, December 25, 2 to 4 pm
Traditions matter, particularly when the world around them is uncharted, adventuresome, unknown; that’s what makes the tradition of The Crossing @ Christmasso special. It’s a true gift for The Crossing to sing works that they have loved and longed for. And they feel so fortunate to have introduced these works to friends, with their rich and varied styles, contemplating the wonders of birth, of the natural world, of mystery and love. To make it a true anniversary holiday, Scott Dettra joins them in the works of MacMillan, Boyle, and Dove. Donald Nally conducts.
Program:
Dietrich Buxtehude: Canzonetta in e, BuxWV 169
Bo Holten: First Snow (1996)
Buxtehude: Puer natus in Bethlehem, BuxWV 217
Eriks Esenvalds: Northern Lights (2013)
Buxtehude: Von Gott will ich nicht lassen, BuxWV 220
James MacMillan: Seinte Mari moder milde (1996)
Benjamin C.S. Boyle: Three Carols of Wintertide
1. Lo, how a rose e’er blooming (2007)
2. Holly and Ivy (2008)
3. Down with the Rosemary (2009)
Robert Convery: Christmas Daybreak (1996)
Jonathan Dove: Seek him that maketh the seven stars (1995)
Buxtehude: In dulci jubilo, BuxWV 197
Joby Talbot: The Wishing Tree (2002)
Thomas Adès: The Fayrfax Carol (1997)
Kenneth Leighton: O leave your sheep (1962)
Buxtehude: Wie scho?n leuchtet in Morgenstern, BuxWV 223
Andrew Gant: What child is this? (1995/2007)
Eriks Esenvalds: Stars (2011)
From The Crossing's program:
We take our “Christmas” pretty seriously at The Crossing, we like to think of it as our own family tradition. This year, it is a true homecoming, as we revisit and reprise some of those works that have stayed with us over the years, replaying in our sonic memories like a missed friend, all moving from night to light, from cold to warm. Old friends will have long remembered the luminous halo of stars in Es?envalds' ringing glasses, the brilliant twinkling staccato stars of Dove; Leighton’s bold strokes of light ‘more radiant far than diadem or star’; new friends will not soon forget.
To this we add some ancient music - a anomaly in the journey that is The Crossing: organ works of Dietrich Buxtehude. Why this departure to the past? Buxtehude’s music is the inspiration for Seven Responses and we will sing his cantatas – and commissioned composers’ responses to them – in our largest project to date, at the apex of 10th Anniversary season June 24 and 25. So, looking ahead by reaching into the past, tonight we begin to explore the similarities and differences between a 17th-century musical view of the world, and a 21st-century view, with the earlier music played by another returning family member, Scott Dettra, on the wonderful Mandor organ that was designed with this music in mind.
To ensure that our traditions do not settle into conventions, at the center of our evening is a work new to us, though composer is not; Joby Talbot’s The Wishing Tree is a punchy, angular madrigal weaving together longing, hope, and desire with the tradition of embedding coins in a tree that holds our wishes.