A special service of Choral Evensong will be held at Christ Church in Frome on Sunday 2nd April to raise money for the Routes youth centre.
The concert will be held at 6pm and sung by a choir of 14 voices. The music has been specially chosen for the season of Lent.
The Miserere (Psalm 51) was composed by Gregorio Allegri (1582-1652) for the papal choir. It was sung annually from 1666 and made a great impression on Mozart in the eighteenth century and on Mendelssohn in the nineteenth.
The music was written for two unaccompanied choirs; the main choir will be downstairs in the church and the second choir of four soloists (including a soprano, who sings five spine-tingling top Cs during the setting) will sing from the organ loft.
The Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis will be sung to the ‘Collegium Regale’ setting with organ accompaniment composed by Herbert Howells (1892-1983) for the choir of King’s College, Cambridge. The anthem will be ‘Crucifixus’ by the baroque composer, Antonio Lotti.
Admission is free but there will be a retiring collection in aid of Frome’s YMCA Routes Café, which was recently threatened with closure because of a funding crisis.
Director of music at Christ Church, Ann Burgess said, “The service of Choral Evensong is part of the English church tradition, stretching back over five hundred years, a calm oasis in a sometimes frantic world, and an opportunity to hear beautiful music. In the last couple of months the generous people of Frome and district have raised over £57,000 to help keep the Youth Café open, but it would be wonderful if we could help them reach the target of £65,000.”
The service will be led by Rev Neil Maxted.
