One of the most popular of Johann Sebastian Bach's choral works, The Magnificat in D Major (BWV 243), is the one audiences will hear from Tauranga Civic Choir at St Mary's Roman Catholic Church on November 19.
Guest conductor Chalium Poppy has chosen Bach's Magnificat for five voices (or parts)to pair with Saint-Saens' Christmas Oratorio - a programme of happy expectation for audiences and a fitting year-end programme for the choir.
An orchestra of mostly Bay of Plenty musicians will perform with the choir in a contribution that is expected to be an invaluable part of the evening's entertainment.
Magnificats take their texts from those verses in the Bible in which the Virgin Mary agrees she should be the mother of Jesus while Christmas oratorios focus on the Christmas story.
Early music specialist Hamilton-based Jayne Tankersley will sing soprano and alto is Tauranga singer Elizabeth Gawler. Auckland tenor Cameron Barclay and Hamilton bass Ian Campbell will sing the men's solos.
Camille Saint-Saens has a well-deserved reputation for great melodies and a direct approach to his music which both charms audiences and pleases musicians. A French composer, he lived from 1835 to 1921. An excellent pianist from early childhood, he soon turned to composing and wrote many works including The Carnival of the Animals for orchestra and the opera Samson and Delilah.
Bach hardly needs an introduction as most people have heard of the musician (1685 to 1750) who served for 27 years as director of music at St Thomas's Church in Leipzig, Germany. He wrote more than 200 cantatas for the Lutheran Church, most with orchestral accompaniments, the St John and St Matthew Passions and many works for organ.
The concert is scheduled for St Mary's Catholic Church on Cameron Road at 7.30pm on November 19.
