Among the highlights of the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston each spring are the choral concerts given by the Westminster Choir. The 2014 edition of the festival featured two programs, and we present highlights from each on this edition of the series. From a concert called Legends at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St. Paul, conductor Joe Miller leads the choir in a multi-faceted program ranging from the ancient to the contemporary. A second concert program at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist had the Charleston Symphony Chorus joining the Westminster Choir and members of the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra to perform Handel’s Te Deum, written to commemorate a British victory in the Battle of Dettingen in 1743.
Listen to the entire program
Billboard and introduction to Daniel Elder’s Elegy, Eriks Esenvalds’s Legend of the Walled-Up Woman, Johannes Brahms’ Nanie, and Allelulia by Alejandro Consolación – Lauren Rico and Joe Miller
ELDER: Elegy
ESENVALDS: Legend of the Walled-Up Woman
CONSOLACIÓN: Allelulia
Westminster Choir
Joe Miller, conductor
Introduction to Jacob Handi’s setting of Pater Noster, Maurice Durufle’s Ubi Caritas, Buffalo Gals, Stephen Foster’s Nelly Bly, and Ballade to the Moon by Daniel Elder – Lauren Rico
HANDI: Pater Noster
DURUFLE: Ubi Caritas
PARKER: Buffalo Gals (arr.)
FOSTER: Nelly Bly
ELDER: Ballade to the Moon
Westminster Choir
Joe Miller, conductor
Introduction to Moses Hogan’s My Soul’s Been Anchored, James Erb’s Shenandoah, Hark, I Hear the Harps Eternal arranged by Alice Walker, and The Lord Bless and Keep You – Lauren Rico
HOGAN: My Soul’s Been Anchored
ERB: Shenandoah
WALKER: Hark, I Hear the Harps Eternal (arr.)
The Lord Bless and Keep You
Westminster Choir
Joe Miller, conductor
Break and introduction to George Frideric Handel’s Te Deum – Lauren Rico and Mike McKay
HANDEL: Te Deum
Westminster Choir
Charleston Symphony Chorus
Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra
Joe Miller, conductor
Introduction to Benjamin Britten’s Hymn to St. Cecilia, Samuel Barber’s Sure on This Shining Night, and Johannes Brahms’ The May Night – Lauren Rico
BRITTEN: Hymn to St. Cecilia
BARBER: This Shining Night
BRAHMS: The May Night
Renaissance
Robert Pritchard, director
End of the show – Lauren Rico and Mike McKay
