Friday, December 12, 2025
An amarcord Christmas
6:30 PM: All ticket holders will be treated to a Pre-concert performance by Arnold Draper Award Recipients, Elise Weisinger and Elliot Kim
Wolfram Lattke, Robert Pohlers, Frank Ozimek, Daniel Knauft and Holger Krause (*Holger Krause will not be present due to illness*)
Wolfram Lattke, Tenor
Robert Pohlers, Tenor
Frank Ozimek, Baritone
Daniel Knauft, Bass
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Founded in 1992 by former members of St Thomas’s Boys Choir in Leipzig, amarcord is one of the world’s leading vocal ensembles. Their hallmarks include a unique tone, breathtaking homogeneity, musical authenticity, and a good dose of charm and humor. This concert is a special holiday program of vocal works across the centuries from Europe, North America, and beyond.
The festival of Christmas takes many different forms. It is celebrated throughout the world, and naturally a wide range of varied traditions have developed in different cultures. And that is only logical, as any traveler from the north who has ever stood beneath palm trees during Advent in December in Florida or Southern California will confirm! And during this festive season, there is generally more singing than at any other time of the year, and so there are a huge number of wonderful Christmas carols that come from all over the globe. Some pieces have their origin in the liturgical rites, beginning with the Catholic church and then from other Christian faiths. Some have developed into annual folk traditions by the people of a particular region, and then spread to become famous in other regions later . Some sing the praises of the baby Jesus, or the great mystery of the birth; others simply sing about the cold winter; some are centuries old, and others just a few decades. Some are virtuous and powerful, while others are calm and peaceful; some are geared for adults, and others particularly for children (including the children inside of all of us!). Often the sound of a particular language helps to create the atmosphere of a song—for example.
The variety of Christmas music is indeed vast, and it’s not only the melodies themselves which are so very different, but also the form in which they are (or can be) sung: there are unison Gregorian melodies, classic four-part choral settings or polyphonic motets, complex jazzy or even trendy (or sometimes a bit kitschy) arrangements. And isn’t it marvelous to take a familiar melody out of its old setting and give it a new one? Christmas carols are so versatile – there are hardly any, which can’t be set in several different styles!
Over the 30 years that amarcord has been singing together, we have developed a huge repertoire of Christmas music. This program contains our favorite songs! It is a “best of”, that shows the huge range of music that can be sung with just five voices, and we have designed it with ancient and some new songs in the first part, with arrangements and a little Christmas twinkling eye in the second part.
We hope that our An amarcord Christmas program will help bring the Holiday spirit into your hearts, and perhaps bring you a bit of calm and inner peace during these often hectic December days.
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Program
- IN THE BLEAK MID-WINTER, Gustav Holst (1874–1934)
- A CHILD IS BORN AT BETHLEHEM
- PUER NATUS IN BETHLEHEM Tune C13, Setting Wolfgang Figulus (c. 1520–1591, Thomaskantor 1549–51), from Vetera Nova 1575
- ES IST EIN ROS ENTSPRUNGEN Tune Cologne 1599, Setting Michael Praetorius (c. 1571–1621)
- GAUDE, GAUDE LAETARE / FREU DICH, SION, UND JUBILIER Cornelius Freundt (c. 1535–1591), Zwickau 1580
- JOSEPH, LIBER NEVE MYN Silesia, c. 1420, after the Latin „Resonet in laudibus“ (C13), Setting Andrew Parrott / Hugh Keyte
- RESONET IN LAUDIBUS Johannes Touront (*c. 1430 – † unknown)
- ICH STEH AN DEINER KRIPPEN HIER modified Tune & Setting Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
- LOS PASTORES A BELÉN
- FOUR VILLANCICOS Spain, C15, Cancionero musical de Segovia Nuevas, nuevas Al del hato Dezí, flor rresplandeçiente Gran gasajo siento yo – Juan del Encina (1468–1529/30)
- LA NEGRINA Mateo Flecha the elder (1481–1553), Las ensaladas de Mateo Flecha, Prague 1581
- COMFORT AND JOY
- MARIA DURCH EIN’ DORNWALD GING Tune C 16, Arrangement: Johannes Weyrauch (1897–1977)
- GOD REST YOU MERRY, GENTLEMEN English Traditional, Arrangement: Philip Lawson (*1957)
- – Intermission –
- RIU, RIU, CHIU Mateo Flecha the elder (1481–1553)
- UPON THE SNOW-CLAD EARTH Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900)
- SHEPHERDS RISE! AND SHAKE OFF SLEEP Henry Lahee (1826–1912)
- COMING HOME FOR CHRISTMAS International Christmas Songs by announcement
