There is a very special concert about to take place this coming Saturday AFTERNOON (13th February), beginning at 5:00pm, in St Columba’s Church, Cambridge, organised by the Director of Music, Ian de Massini. It will comprise music by one of the world’s most lyrical living composers, Carl Rütti, himself a concert-pianist, and devoted church-organist, and who has written some of most popular modern carols ever to be regularly broadcast by King’s College Chapel Choir, Cambridge as part of their annual Fesitval of Nine lessons and Carols. We are delighted that the composer and his wife, Marie-Louise Rütti, will be flying over from Switzerland specifically to attend this very special concert.
At the concert on Saturday (note the early startin
g-time of 5:00pm) there will be gathered some of Cambridge’s finest professional musicians, including the flute- and recorder-player and founder of The Cambridge Buskers, Michael Copley, alongside cellist Veronica Henderson, plus our very own Cambridge Voices, all under the direction of Ian de Massini.
Being the day after Valentine’s Day, the first half of the concert will include the composer’s complete Songs of Love, seven settings of verses from the Old Testament’s Songs of Solomon, specially composed for Cambridge Voices, accompanied by solo cello (Veronica Henderson).
In the second half, we will witness the World Premiere of the composer’s grand setting of Psalm 150, Praise ye the Lord! written especially for Cambridge Voices to mark the choir’s recent 25th anniversary, and is scored for two spatially-separated choirs, and is musically-inspired by the song of the Swiss blackbird! There will also be a guest appearance of the famous, iconoclastic comedy-duo The Classic Buskers (formerly known as The Cambridge Buskers), who will perform some well-known Swiss music (yes, there IS some!) in the form of their unique de-rangement of Rossin’s William Tell Overture, complete with Swiss cow-bells, kazoos, a thunder-storm, strange yodelling, and a very loud Rauschpfeife!
Admission to the concert is by programme, on sale at the door of St Columba’s Church, from 4:30pm on Saturday: £8, with children at £5.
