Articles for Oct 04
Cathedral concerts in the key of faith
Liverpool's two cathedrals will host live performances of music by some of the world's greatest composers to celebrate the city's year of Faith in One City.
The music of composers influenced by the Catholic and Protestant faiths will be celebrated in Liverpool's Catholic and Anglican cathedrals.
The unique double bill is being held to celebrate the city's second Capital of Culture themed year and will be performed by Live-A-Music - an independent ensemble of players from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.
The concerts are one of 80 projects funded by the £2m city council lead Creative Community programme to help celebrate the year of Faith in One City.
Hilary Burrage, Hon Chair of HOPES: The Hope Street Association, which is co-sponsoring the concerts, said: "The idea is that people of all faiths and those who don't have one can join each other in the two cathedrals at each end of Hope Street, to celebrate the contribution of music to Faith in One City."
The first concert which will celebrate Catholic influenced composers will be held on Wednesday, 27 October in the Crypt Concert Room at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King.
The night's music will be Vivaldi's Autumn from the Four Seasons; Dvorak's Piano Quintet: Mozart's Divertimento and Elgar's Piano Quintet. All four composers had strong connections to the Catholic faith, not least Vivaldi who was ordained and was known as the ''Red Priest'' - he had red hair!
The second concert on Tuesday, 16 November will celebrate Protestant composers at Liverpool's Anglican cathedral. The music heard will be Graham Marshall's Shaking Strings; Sir Charles Villiers Stanford's Piano Quintet and Johannes Brahms' Piano Quintet.
Two of these pieces are unique, in that Graham Marshall, who currently lives in the North, dedicated his work to Ensemble Liverpool and the Stanford Piano Quintet is rarely heard - and so far has never been recorded.
Tony Burrage, Director and founder of Live-A-Music and Ensemble Liverpool, said: "These pieces, written over the centuries and in very different circumstances, demonstrate both the variety and the shared strength and beauty of music over time and place. These musicians had great faith in their own ability and the ability of music to transcend."
Councillor Warren Bradley, Executive Member for Leisure and Culture, said: "These concerts will be a unique experience and wonderfully illustrate how far the city has come since it was divided by sectarianism less than 40 years ago.
"The cathedrals are arguably the city's finest and most inspiring places to listen to such wonderful music. Liverpool is blessed to have such places and talented musicians to enjoy such an event."
Both concerts will begin at 7.30pm. Tickets are £7.50 (£5.50 concessions) each, or £14 for both concerts, from Philharmonic Hall box office 0151 709 3789, or on the door. For more details please log on to www.liverpoolphil.com.
