Guisborough Choral Society

Guisborough Choral Society Christmas Concert

Get in the festive spirit and come along with friends and family to celebrate Christmas with us and of course, feel free to sing along!

We are sure you'll be delighted with our orchestral ensemble and guest artists Ben Noble and Alice Dix. In the first half the choir will be accompanied by an orchestral ensemble for a performance of 'Fantasia on Christmas Carols' by R. Vaughan Williams and 'On Christmas Night' by Bob Chillcott.

We'll perform 'Quatre Motets pour le temps de Noël' (Four Motets for the Season of Christmas) by Francis Poulenc unaccompanied.

'Fantasia on Christmas Carols' is a gentle work which focuses on four traditional carols with fragments of other familiar carol tunes.

'On Christmas Night' is a musical celebration in which Bob Chilcott combines tradition and invention - comforting and reflective, also jubilant, swinging, and folksy. 'Quatre Motets pour le temps de Noël,' depicts four scenes from the Nativity story, containing moments of haunting beauty.

The first captures the awe and mystery of the birth of Jesus, the second asks the shepherds, Whom did you see?, the third brings the serene, starlit night through which the Magi travel, and the final motet ends with a joyful Gloria in excelsis Deo. The second half will be our usual festive mix of audience and choir carols accompanied by our orchestral ensemble.