Cardiff University Chamber Choir, Cardiff University Symphony Orchestra

Respighi Lauda per la Natività del Signore ('Laud to the Nativity')
John Rutter Gloria
Shostakovich Symphony no.5 in D minor, op.47

The University Chamber Choir and Symphony Orchestra will be celebrating the season with Respighi's Laud to the Nativity, the story of Christ's birth from the viewpoint of the shepherds and the composer's most successful and best-known piece in the antique style. Rutter's setting of the Gloria is based on one of the Gregorian chants associated with the text. Unusually, the piece is divided into three movements and the accompaniment is for brass ensemble with timpani and percussion. Shostakovich's Symphony no. 5 has been variously described as: positive, sombre, festive, a parody, a triumph, grandiose. Come and decide for yourself which of these attributes it deserves.

'…choirs love to sing this music, and audiences seldom fail to respond to it.' BBC Music Magazine on Rutter's Gloria