Our year-long celebration of Joseph Haydn’s great final oratorio _The Seasons_ reaches its grand finale with Spring and Summer: “Behold, the sun arises”. _The Seasons_ is the least solemn, most hedonistic of oratorios: it epitomises Haydn’s final creative period in its juxtaposition and fusion of the popular and the sublime, pastoral innocence and the most sophisticated orchestral and harmonic language. We are delighted to be joined in this concert by Broughton High School Senior Chamber Choir: most of the young people taking part are pupils at the City of Edinburgh Music School and are preparing for careers in music. They will sing with us in _The Seasons_ as well as performing both choral and instrumental works including Thomas Morley’s _Now is the month of maying_, _Summer Wind_ by Johnny Mercer (jazz quartet), and _May: Starlit Nights_ from Tchaikovsky’s _The Seasons_ (piano).
To add to the evening’s celebrations we present the premiere of _Cantemus Igitur_, a cantata for chorus and orchestra by award-winning Scottish composer Rory Boyle, whose work has been performed extensively worldwide. The work draws on texts from Robert Herrick’s _To Music_ to Shakespeare’s _Merchant of Venice_: “The man that hath no music in himself…let no such man be trusted.”
Please visit our website for more information about the choir: [http://ercu.org.uk]ercu.org.uk [http://ercu.org.uk]