University Choir and Baroque Ensemble - Messe de Minuit

Brinsley took part in the University of York Choir and Baroque Ensemble’s Christmas concert in Central Hall, the first of the season under Robert Hollingworth. Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit pour Noël, built on French Baroque carols, was interleaved with carol anthems by Herbert Howells and with five readings from Dylan Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales, which Hollingworth delivered himself from an armchair.¹

Programme

Marc-Antoine Charpentier Messe de Minuit pour Noël
Herbert Howells Carol Anthems
Bo Holten First Snow
Dylan Thomas A Child’s Christmas in Wales (readings)

Conductors: Robert Hollingworth, Alexander Kyle

The review called the weaving together of Charpentier, Howells and Dylan Thomas “an ingenious idea”. The Baroque Ensemble “responded stylishly, with keen rhythm and taut ensemble”, the tempo changes in the Credo were “well managed”, and Bo Holten’s First Snow “made an effective finisher”.²

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