En tournée

MAGICAL CHRISTMAS

FROM TRADITION TO BROADWAY

A cappella

Video clip
Audio extract
Contact diffusion
Marta Blanchetti - 06 08 26 89 70 - diffusion@sequenza93.fr

MAGICAL CHRISTMAS

From tradition to Broadway

From ancient motets to contemporary creations, Magical Christmas offers a festive and exhilarating experience across several centuries of vocal polyphony. The audience shares the pleasure of singing along with the soloists to some well-known refrains.
  • 8 mixed voices
  • Ancient motets
  • Festive Christmas carols
  • Participatory pieces
  • Duration 1 hour

PART 1 / SACRED CAROLS (RENAISSANCE / BAROQUE MUSIC)

Tomas Luis de Victoria (1548-1611)
O magnum mysterium

Michael Prætorius (1571-1621)
Es ist ein Ros'entsprungen - participatory

Grégoire Rolland (1989 -)
Miroirs de résonance - Creation 2021 - for 8 singers and crotales

Franz Xaver Grüber (1787-1863)
Stille Nacht - participatory


PART 2 / FESTIVE CHRISTMAS SONGS

James Pierpont (1822 - 1893)
Jingle Bells - participatory

Nicholas Temperley (1932-)
Whence is that goodly Fragance

Morten Lauridsen (1943-)
O magnum mysterium

Alan Bullard (1947-)
And the stars looked down

Jehan Alain (1909 -1940)
Noël Nouvelet

Eleanor Daley (1955-)
The Huron Carol


PART 3 / CHRISTMAS ON BROADWAY

Joseph Kosma (1905-1969) and Andrew Carter (1939-)
Autumn Leaves - participatory

Richard Rodgers (1902-1979)
Blue Moon

Harold Arlen (1905- 1986)
Over the rainbow - participatory

Con Conrad (1891 -1938)
The continental

Laurent Durupt (1978 -)
Petit Papa Noël - Creation 2020 - for 8 singers and lighting system
Based on Henri Martinet / Raymond Vincy

Christmas carols are an astonishing blend of introspection and impetus, richness and simplicity, intimacy and community.

I wanted to pay tribute to this tradition with a programme full of contrasts, from ancient motets to Broadway standards, via well-known Christmas refrains that the audience sings along with us in joyful communion.

In keeping with Sequenza 9.3's commitment, I have enriched “Magical Christmas” with two commissions for composers. While Grégoire Rolland, in ‘Miroirs de résonances’, evokes the Christmas bells that lie dormant in our memories, Laurent Durupt revisits the famous ‘Little Santa Claus’ in a piece as funny as it is virtuoso, for eight singers and string lights.

CATHERINE SIMONPIETRI