Private School News

A SPECIAL PERFORMANCE AND LIVE BBC BROADCAST IN LANCING COLLEGE CHAPEL

Benjamin Britten’s ST NICOLAS CANTATA

Andrew Kennedy: Tenor
BBC Singers with choristers of St Paul’s Cathedral; BBC Concert Orchestra; Sioned Williams (harp)
Conductors: Andrew Carwood, Paul Brough

Thursday 18 December at 7pm
Tickets: £10, £20.

Available from Chichester Festival Theatre Box Office (in person or by telephone): 01243 781312
or from Ticket South (online or by telephone): www.ticketsouth.co.uk; 023 80711818

This concert will be broadcast live for BBC Radio 3 to mark the 60th anniversary of the world premiere of the St Nicolas Cantata in Lancing College Chapel. The work was commissioned by Lancing College. The concert will be available as a webcast on bbc.co.uk/singers from 7.00pm on 19 December.

ST NICOLAS is patron saint of children, and Lancing’s magnificent Chapel is dedicated to St Mary and St Nicolas. Benjamin Britten, the most widely performed British composer of the 20th century, wrote the St Nicolas Cantata to celebrate the school’s centenary, in 1948. Peter Pears, Britten’s artistic collaborator and companion, was the premier British tenor of his generation. Pears was educated at Lancing, where he developed his singing and acting talents. Both musicians retained close links with the school, and Pears was a member of the BBC Singers.

The St Nicolas Cantata was given its world premiere in the Chapel by the famous Lancing College Choir, with Peter Pears singing the role of Saint Nicolas. Children’s voices play an important part in many of Britten’s compositions, and this Cantata is a fine example. It has been performed by leading choirs and soloists in major venues throughout the world.

This public concert will feature the St Nicolas Cantata, Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols and Howells’s Three Carol-Anthems. Lancing College holds a valuable archive of material relating to the commission and composition of the St Nicolas Cantata, which includes letters from both Britten and Pears. A number of old boys still remember hearing, or singing in, its first performance. During the interval on 18 December, there will be a fascinating programme, broadcast on BBC Radio 3, on the genesis of this work with interviews, as well as readings from letters and documents in the Lancing archives.

The St Nicolas Cantata is a dramatic depiction the life of St Nicolas in nine scenes. It describes legendary incidents, including the Tale of the Pickled Boys. Three women call for their missing boys: Timothy, Mark and John. Travellers, seeking food in the city, order a meal at an inn. St Nicolas warns them not to touch the meat, as it is the flesh of the missing boys, who have been killed by a butcher and pickled in salt. St Nicolas calls the three boys and brings them back to life. They then enter, holding hands, and singing ‘Alleluia’.

LANCING COLLEGE CHAPEL: Award-winning restoration work completed

Lancing College Chapel stands high on the South Downs. It is a magnificent Gothic Revival Grade I listed building, and is recognised as one of the most impressive landmarks in Sussex. Thirty metres in height, this airy, lofty structure is delicate and intricate in detail. The history of the building is told through its stained glass. This includes the spectacular Rose Window – the largest in England – containing 30,000 pieces of blown glass, and the Trevor Huddleston Memorial Window, dedicated by Archbishop Desmond Tutu in May 2007.

During the past eighteen months, the stonework and metalwork of the Chapel have been restored by the acclaimed Chichester Cathedral Works Organisation. The final scaffolding platforms have just been taken down to reveal their meticulous expertise in the Chapel, for which they have won the Ecclesiastical Building Award from Sussex Heritage Trust for 2008.

The Lancing Tapestries, designed in the 1930s, were woven on William Morris’s great loom at Merton Abbey. New spotlights have been installed to show off the details of the tapestries and high altar to best advantage, and a number of rare and valuable artefacts have been conserved, including the 15th century processional cross. Other treasures include the splendid Frobenius and Walker organs, the High Altar Crucifix and a 17th century Flemish carved, wood figure of St Nicolas.

Lancing College Chapel is usually open to visitors Mon – Sat 10am to 4pm (Sun 12pm to 4pm).