Programme:

• Britten: Saint Nicolas Op 42

• Haydn: Missa in Honorem Sti Nicolai 1772

Mayfield Festival Choir is joined by London Primavera, a semi-chorus from Mayfield School’s Schola Cantorum and soloists Eleanor Sanderson-Nash (Soprano), Katie Coventry (Mezzo), Stephen Mills (Tenor) and Harry Thatcher (Baritone) to bring you this concert of two very different musical responses to the well known figure of St Nicholas.

St Nicholas lived at the turn of the fourth century. Because of his penchant for secret gift-giving, by the 19th century he had morphed into the character of Santa Claus. And while the real St Nicholas had no direct contact with the British Isles, there are a disproportionate number of English churches dedicated to St Nicholas because of the Christian name of the only English Pope, Nicholas Breakspear, the 12th-century Adrian IV.

This concert presents two very different musical responses to St Nicholas. The young Haydn dashed off a mass in honour of  his patron, Prince Nikolaus Esterházy, to be performed on St Nicholas’s day 1772. Always inventive and entertaining, Haydn was never more so that when he was writing at speed. Benjamin Britten, on the other hand, wrote his cantata St Nicolas at comparative leisure, for the centenary of Lancing College in 1948. A colourful canvas of birth, death, prison, a journey to Palestine, and pickled boys, Britten uses his orchestra’s strings, percussion, pianos, and organ to colourful effect. In this performance, Mayfield Festival Choir is joined by a semi-chorus from Mayfield School and the professional orchestra London Primavera. Britten was always keen that amateur musicians and young people should work side by side with professional musicians in order to keep the professionals on their toes and to encourage the amateurs to up their game. A worthy aim, which continues in Mayfield to this day.