Collegium Musicum Of London Chamber Choir

Join Collegium Musicum of London and a dazzling array of soloists and instrumentalists in a spectacular celebration of Baroque mastery at one of central London’s most renowned musical venues.
Rapidly gaining a reputation as one of the capital’s most accomplished chamber ensembles, CML returns to St James’s in Piccadilly – under the assured direction of conductor Greg Morris – with a programme of Baroque masterpieces for choir, soloists and chamber orchestra, featuring specialist period intrumentalists.
Firstly, to England and Henry Purcell.  Born in 1659, a year after Oliver Cromwell's death, as a boy Purcell was a chorister in the Chapel Royal.  His Rejoice in The Lord Alway is a majestic anthem for choir, soloists and strings.  It was doubtless composed with the musical tastes of King Charles II in mind, who disliked being bored when he went to pray, and 'never in his life could endure any [music] that he could not act by keeping the time.' 
I Was Glad, a fine example of the composer's concise, rhythmic style, was composed for the coronation of King James II.
German-born Handel became a naturalised British subject in 1727. In his Coronation Anthem Let Thy Hand be Strengthened, the composer sets Psalm 89, a prayer for strength and wisdom for a political ruler. This had been part of the English coronation rite since the middle ages, and Handel’s treatment is full of majesty and characteristic grandeur.
To many ears, JS Bach is the father of western classical music.  Born in Germany in 1685, he only once travelled a substantial distance beyond the small corner of eastern Germany in which the extensive Bach family of musicians was established.  But his appetite for studying musical works from all over Europe, combined with his immense skill in counterpoint and harmonic organisation, created a brilliant synthesis of contemporary styles which became highly personal.
His Missa Brevis in G minor, BWV235, was composed in Leipzig, where the composer spent the last 27 years of his life. This exqiuisite yet rarely performed Lutheran mass, like the others composed at the same time, is a compendium of all the compositional techniques and styles employed by the master. Bach took previously composed movements from cantatas and altered their text and music, untethering the work from its once-a-year position in the liturgical cycle.

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