Saturday, February 20, 2027

South Main Baptist Church, 7:30PM

Barnaby Smith, Artistic Director - Voces8, guest conductor

At the heart of Barnaby Smith’s musical life lies the unaccompanied human voice. Inspired by the sound world of VOCES8 and his Decca release Shall We Gather, this program explores the sacred choral tradition. Centered on Frank Martin’s extraordinary "Mass for Double Choir" — one of the most powerful a cappella works of the twentieth century — the evening unfolds as a sequence of reflections, with movements of the Mass interwoven with music spanning five centuries. Renaissance brilliance, the glowing sonorities of the British cathedral, and the spiritual intensity of Martin’s writing illuminate one another in turn.
 
At the heart of the program stands Gerald Finzi’s radiant "Lo, the Full, Final Sacrifice", whose sweeping lines and organ textures provide a moment of profundity. Moments of stillness from Thomas Tallis and William Harris offer repose before the Mass’s peaceful conclusion. The concert culminates in Edward Bairstow’s majestic "Blessed City, Heavenly Salem", bringing choir and organ together in a blaze of light and affirmation.