Southampton Philharmonic Choir will be performing Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony on Saturday, 9th December 2023 at 19.30 at the Southampton O2 Guildhall.
London’s Docklands Sinfonia is, once again, joining the choir to perform a programme including Carl Nielsen’s Helios Overture and Vaughan Williams’ Toward the Unknown Region. Emma Tring, soprano, and Dominic Sedgwick, baritone, will be joining the ensemble.
Known for its dedication to producing high-quality choral performances, Southampton Philharmonic Choir, together with Southampton University Philharmonic Choir (SU Phil), bring a captivating concert to the O2 Guildhall Southampton this December.
Vaughan Williams completed A Sea Symphony in 1909, setting humanistic texts by Walt Whitman, including lines from “Leaves of Grass”, to music. It is a symphony for orchestra and chorus that weaves a rich tapestry of sound, with the orchestra and chorus creating dynamic waves of music that rise and fall like the tides. It is dramatic yet lyrical, and stands as a monumental achievement in his oeuvre. The piece is a grand, powerful journey into the depths of the ocean, echoing the might and majesty of the ocean, and taking the audience on a profound, immersive, musical journey into the heart of nature itself.
In contrast, Toward the Unknown Region is a shorter choral work composed in 1907; Vaughan Williams’ setting of another poem from Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass”. As a companion piece to The Sea Symphony, this composition takes the listener on a different kind of journey – one that explores the unknown regions of the human spirit. It is hauntingly beautiful, delving into themes of transcendence and the eternal.
Performing with the Choir for the second time is the Docklands Sinfonia, a ‘diverse, dynamic and versatile symphony orchestra’. To open the concert, they will perform Carl Nielsen’s Helios Overture, composed in 1903 as a musical tribute to our life-giver: the Sun. This orchestral masterpiece explores light and darkness exquisitely to mirror the Sun’s daily journey across the sky.
Together, the three works form a fascinating ensemble; each part complementing the other two, in a performance that seeks to enchant and refresh in the run-up to Christmas.
* Tickets are on sale now and available online from O2 Guildhall Southampton O2guildhallsouthampton.co.uk
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