Cathedral Choristers' Italian Tour
Date: Tuesday 16 October 2007
The Cathedral Choir has just returned from a short but highly successful concert tour to Italy. They sang two major concerts, one for the International Festival of Polyphony and Early Music, in St Agapito Cathedral, Palestrina and the second in the Church of San Rocco. Carpi, near Modena. There was a little time for sightseeing, notably in Modena, the home of Luciano Pavarotti.
These concerts were exuberantly received by packed audiences, to standing ovations. At the first concert, the choir had to be called back for further encores as the audience continued to applaud! Each programme featured a performance of the Miserere by Allegri, with solos from George Inscoe, Joshua Best-Shaw and Joel Whitewood. Whilst the Palestrina programme contained music from the 16th and 17th centuries, the Carpi programme was varied and included works by Barber, Lauridsen, Chilcott and Tippett. The enthusiastic agents have already expressed a desire for the choir to repeat the visit as soon as possible.
