Sunday 22 December 2024
Christmas Music through the Ages
A Festival of Carols and Christmas Songs
Many composers got totally inspired by Christmas. Photonen Vocaal Ensemble enjoys sharing with you a choice of well-known and relatively unknown beautiful Christmas music.
Contemplative and sparkling
Veni, veni Emmanuel by Kodály, based on the well-known medieval melody, will get you right into the Christmas spirit; you can relax with the tranquil Ne timeas Maria by the Renaissance Spanish composer De Victoria, and enjoy he radiant Brich an, o schönes Morgenlicht from Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. There will be also splendid, somewhat more modern, yet accessible harmonies in Lulla, Lully by Kenneth Leighton and Hymn to the Virgin by Benjamin Britten.
Carols and Christmas Songs
The choir also performs Christmas carols in various languages, such as Noël Nouvelet (arr. King’s Singers), Es ist ein Ros entsprungen by Praetorius, Entre le boeuf et l’Âne gris and the Swedish Jul, jul, strålande jul as well as swinging early Dutch carols. Conductor Jeroen Spitteler looks forward to surprise the audience: “Christmas music is such an appealing repertoire. And sometimes you can find the loveliest of gems in our own Dutch musical treasure trove…”
Photonen also invites you to sing along with several traditional Christmas carols.
Sunday 22 December 2024 – 3.15 pm
Oud-Katholieke kerk (Ruysdaelkerk), Ruysdaelstraat 39, 1071 XA Amsterdam
The Ruysdaelkerk has a limited capacity. Kindly be advised to get your tickets timely in presale.
Admission:
Presale €18 / €15,50
At the venue €19,50 / €17
Children up to 12 years €10
Photonen does not charge transaction costs.
The discount rate applies to CJP / Student / A’dam city pass with green dot.
Presale ends at 11:59 pm the day before the concert.
After this, the venue rate will be charged – also for tickets purchased online.
Online ticket sales close at 3 pm on the day of the concert, after which tickets can only be purchased at the venue’s box office. Here you can pay in cash, with a debit card, or with a smartphone.
19 October 2024
Shadows of Paradise
Photonen’s conductor Jeroen Spitteler has been invited to act as a guest conductor with the Utrecht based ensemble Coqu. Fortunately, singer and conductor Gulian van Nierop has been willing to take over as guest conductor with Photonen. Under his leadership we perform a fine new a cappella programme on Saturday 19 October in the Dominicuskerk in Amsterdam (near Amsterdam Central train station). Shadows of Paradise brings contemplative, comforting but also cheerful choral sounds from England and Scandinavia. The compositions date from the late 19th to the early 21st century.
Eternity
The main work on the programme is Herbert Howells‘ magnificent Requiem from 1932. In an impressionistic style, he reaches back to the polyphony of the English Renaissance and offers us beautiful, spacious harmonies and finely abrasive dissonances. The texts are from the Bible (e.g. English psalms) and the Latin requiem mass.
My Soul, there is a country far beyond the stars – Henry Vaughan (1622-1695)
Based on the text of a 17th century poem by Henry Vaughan, Hubert Parry’s music expresses an intense longing for peace, in a frozen pain about his friends who died in the First World War, while John Tavener and James MacMillan make us ponder, with Song for Athene and Who shall separate us?, which both became known through funerals within the English royal family. In addition, Hjálmar Ragnarsson and Pärt Uusberg rendered choir songs on death from Iceland and Estonia.
Playfulness
Our guest conductor Gulian van Nierop wonders: how to sing about death if not also sing about life? As a counterpart, Photonen brings disarming, witty children’s songs by John Rutter and Edvard Grieg, which do have a catchy cheerful swing.
Saturday 19 October 2024 – 8.15 pm
Dominicuskerk, Spuistraat 12, 1012 TS Amsterdam
Admission:
Presale € 18 / € 15,50
At the venue € 19,50 / € 17
Children up to 12 years € 10 (both online and at the venue)
Kindly note: We do not charge any administration fees. The discounted rate applies to student/CJP/Amsterdamse Stadspas with green dot. The presale rate is valid until 11:59 pm on the day before the concert. You can purchase online tickets until 3 pm on the day of the concert. After that only at the cash register at the venue, either by debit card, in cash or with your smartphone.