Celebrating British and German choral music, including works by Byrd, Purcell, Schütz, Brahms, Parry, Britten and Vaughan Williams

Come hear a leading choir from Germany, the Motettenchor of Dresden, visiting the UK and collaborating with award-winning London-based choir, the Joyful Company of Singers (JCS).

The collaboration builds on JCS visiting Dresden in 2025 and singing with the Motettenchor in churches still evidencing the devastating Allied bombing of February 1945. Given our current challenging times and conflicts in Europe, we are committed to building on our friendship and cultural exchanges and celebrating musical excellence.

The programme for this joint concert in St Saviour’s Church, St Albans will present works by some of the outstanding British and German composers from the 16th to 21st centuries, including Schütz, Byrd, Purcell, Britten (marking the 50th anniversary of his death), Brahms, Parry and Vaughan Williams.

We are most grateful to The Dresden Trust [www.dresdentrust.org] for their generous support for this performance.

The full list of composers and works featured [joint DMC/JCS items in bold] is:

Johannes Brahms – Unsere Väter; Wo ist ein so herrlich Volk

DMC:

Heinrich Schütz – Ich bin ein rechter Weinstock

Thomas Weelkes – Hosanna to the Son of David

Thomas Weelkes – When David heard

Johann Sebastian Bach – Komm, Jesu komm

JCS:

William Byrd – Sing joyfully

Henry Purcell – Hear my prayer, O Lord

C. H. Parry – There is an old belief

Benjamin Britten – Whoso dwelleth under the defence (Psalm 91)

Heinrich Schütz – Aus der Tiefe (Psalm 130)

JCS:

Benjamin Britten – A hymn to the Virgin

Cecilia McDowall – I know that my redeemer liveth

Tarik O’Regan – Gratias tibi

DMC:

Rudolf Mauersberger – Wie liegt die Stadt so wüst

Pēteris Vasks – Pater noster

Albert Becker – Bleibe, Abend will es werden

Ralph Vaughan Williams – Valiant-for-truth

Description supplied by the event organiser.