VOX CAPE TOWN PRESENTS

SOMERKERSFEES

A BRIGHT SUMMER’S CHRISTMAS FROM CAPE TOWN

This collection of carols includes music by two composers with whom Barry’s career has been closely associated. The first is Peter Warlock (1894-1930, England) and the opening lines of his joyous carol Benedicamus Domino [1] – “For the advent of a child, / Hurrah! The season is upon us” – set the tone of festive expectation. There is no rose [4], by South African-born composer John Joubert (1927-2019) is a sublime, unaccompanied setting of that famous 15th-century text.

Two other settings of Renaissance texts are included in this compendium. The German carol Maria durch ein’ Dornwald ging [2], here arranged by Stefan Claas, is followed by a meditative setting of a 16th-century text, By-By, Lullaby [3], composed in 2019 by Stephen Carletti. This is the premiere recording of that work, in which Margot Dower is the soloist.

To acknowledge our setting at the southern tip of Africa, we present two carols from closer to home. The first is a specially-commissioned isiXhosa translation of the rocking Cradle Hymn by Malcolm Archer (b. 1952, England) – Thula! Nunu, zola ulale [5] (“Hush! My dear, lie still and slumber”).

The inclusion of What Sweeter Music [6], a ravishing carol by John Rutter (b. 1945, England), pays tribute to Sir Stephen Cleobury, for whom the carol was written in 1988, and who, in September 2019, retired after leading the choir at King’s College, Cambridge, for 37 years. Cleobury passed away in November that year. The pianist is Clinton Claasen.

Finally, the second local carol is an upbeat arrangement by Hans Huyssen (b. 1964, South Africa) of the Afrikaans liedjie originally written by Koos du Plessis to celebrate “a bright summer’s Christmas” and which lends its name to this collection of carols, Somerkersfees [7].