REJOICE in the LAMB by Benjamin Britten @JAMontheMarsh ​

REJOICE in the LAMB
Benjamin Britten

Delaware Choral Scholars
Paul D Head · conductor
Simon Hogan · organist
Esther Rhoades · soprano
Kathryn Quay · alto
Leon DeShields · tenor
Andrew Maggio · bass

JAM on the Marsh festival 2023

Bringing an international flavour to the festival, the Delaware Choral Scholars and their renowned conductor Dr Paul Head bring a brilliant programme that truly ‘crosses the pond’ from one of the United States’ finest composers Morten Lauridsen to contemporary Brits, Paul Mealor and Jonathan Dove, via one of the great choral masterpieces, Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb and American Spirituals.

Written in 1943, Britten’s Festival Cantata Rejoice in the Lamb was written for the 50th anniversary of the consecration of St Matthew’s, Northampton. It was commissioned by the then Vicar, the Reverend Walter Hussey, a significant commissioner of art, such as: a Henry Moore Madonna and Child and a Graham Sutherland painting of the Crucifixion for St Matthews and a window by Chagall, a tapestry by John Piper, a further painting by Graham Sutherland and commissioned Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, all for Chichester Cathedral. The text for Britten’s cantata consists of excerpts from Christopher Smart’s poem ‘Jubilate Agno’, written in the grim conditions of an 18th century mental asylum.

www.jamconcert.org