Get Your Classical Kick This Christmas

By suke Last edited 171 months ago
Get Your Classical Kick This Christmas

DSC_0099.JPG Haven't quite started feeling Christmassy yet, or just yearning for the type of Christmas of days gone by? Fear not, an evening at Christ Church in Spitalfields may be just the thing to kick start your festive cheer and set your ears aglow.

Veni Emmanuel is an evening of Tudor music for Christmas and Advent brought to us by an ensemble of young British singers who call themselves Stile Antico. Now established as one of the most original and exciting new voices in their field, the groups' most recent release, Song of Songs won the 2009 Gramophone award for Early Music and reached the top of the US Classical Chart. Veni Emmanuel is centred around Thomas Tallis's magnificent 7-part mass. Written for the combined choirs of the Spanish and English Chapels Royal, it was first performed in December 1554 and is based on the Christmas plainsong 'Puer natus' - 'a boy is born', which originally celebrated not only the Advent season, but also the apparent pregnancy of Queen Mary.

The mass is interspersed with contemporary liturgical settings for the season and, if that wasn't enough, arriving early ensures you get to hear some Grandsire Triples rung out on Christ Church bells by the Society of Royal Cumberland Youths (6.15-7pm).

Thursday 10 Dec, 7pm. For more info see Spitalfields music

Last Updated 08 December 2009