For Immediate Release:

November 15, 2011

PORTLAND SYMPHONIC CHOIR SINGS WINTERSONG!

Let the trumpets sound! Let the songs ring out! Join the Portland Symphonic Choir for the most glorious music of the season in the annual Wintersong! concerts at St. Mary’s Cathedral (NW 18th and Davis) Saturday, December 3rd at 7:30 pm and Sunday, December 4th at 1:30 pm.

This year’s Wintersong presents a world of music for the coming season of celebrations, accompanied by organ and the Festival Brass and conducted by the Choir’s well-respected Assistant Director, Kathryn Lehmann. For tickets starting at $25, visit www.pschoir.org or call 503-223-1217. Bring the whole family to hear magical music of the holidays.

The Choir’s performance features Gerald Finzi’s brilliant Magnificat which is based on the words of the Virgin Mary to her cousin Elizabeth on hearing she would bear the Christ Child. The text is beautifully highlighted by Finzi’s muscular yet fluid style, with a rhythmic complexity that matches the cadences of the text perfectly. After the imposing organ introduction, Finzi plunges into bright, festive chords, interspersed with pensive semi-chorus passages. He paints word-pictures graphically in the plunging intervals for the text “He hath put down the mighty from their seats” and in the symmetrical setting for the texts around “Abraham and his seed forever” and “magnify the Lord,” two important clues to the jubilation Mary feels about her news. The final ethereal “Amen” is a fitting conclusion to this fine, striding, exultant work.

Another longer work the Choir presents this year is a fabulous compilation of Christmas carols both familiar and unusual, aptly titled Christmas Flourish. From Joy to the World and Angels We Have Heard on High to Stille Nacht and Methinks I See An Heavenly Host, this exciting work covers them all with a flourish.

The international songs of the season the Choir presents are often reverent and sometimes fun. Weihnachten is a worshipful German Christmas tune for eight-part chorus that revels in the “majesty the Lord has revealed.” A traditional Spanish song, Hacia Belen va un Borrico tells an amusing tale of the Christmas burro carrying a chocolate pot and some gypsies who steal the swaddling clothes, all in a sprightly, dancing tune. Ocho kandelikas tells the tale of childhood Chanukah memories from Yugoslavia, counting off the candles and picturing the celebratory pies and parties with great gusto.

Combine these wonderful works with the traditional candlelight processional, audience sing-alongs, and several splendid works from the Wintersong Brass, and you have the best celebration of the season ever. Usher in the holidays right! Contact the Portland Symphonic Choir at www.pschoir.org or 503-223-1217 today.

Contact Mark Petersen – 503-223-1217 or executive@pschoir.org